Sakata, Spring Trials 2011

I loved this stop for all of the color, as many people who know me well know I am a color feen! At the office I have every color of highlighter, sharpie, clicker sharpie, gel pen, you get the picture! I loved the retail display side, they had one side of the greenhouse dedicated to production and the other to retail. Of course I gravitated to the side with the displays and all of the color blocking. I am so attracted to this type of display, I know if a retailer used these methods they would definitely get some sales from people like me. See the color for yourself on our Flickr slideshow below:

Takii, Spring Trials 2011

I was not sure there would be anything to look at here since we do not grow many seed variety annuals, really any annuals due to the hot humid climate here. I was surprised to find a few things! Cannas in particular. Now that's a plants that likes hot and humid! We have grown some of the Tropical series as a contract grow and to be honest the germination sucked! The seed is expensive and we had around 10% germ. If I remember correctly it runs about 1-200 dollars per 1000 seed. I was told at this stop that they are working on this problem and have now started to laser stratify the seed. I guess we will see if that helps. If we can get good germ it would be great to be able to provide this product from seed rather than from the expensive tissue culture process. Yes, I know we have a lab, but this is a product that we would only sell once a year and in small numbers so it is not really worth keeping stock in a lab all year for that, this is why we stopped doing bananas, they were making me bananas! Anyway enjoy the pics!

Rancho Tissue Technologies, Spring Trials 2011

Wow, Spring is truely kickin' this year so I am trying to get caught up in the office when I can! Here are a few shots I got at Rancho Tissue Technologies while I was there for Spring Trials. I had to kick myself because I totally forgot to charge my camera and it died before I could take all the pics I wanted to take! I did get some good shots though. I am in love with the new Echeveria 'Cante' as well as a new Dyckia in the works, I believe the name is something like 'Marnyay'. See the pictures below to see for yourself. Black was in a few years ago for plant color, I say white is the new black! Of course who can resist all the mini Aloes, I have placed an order for the 'Marmelade' I think it will be a nice addition to our ever growing aloe line. Did you know we have 7 now? How cool is that? Also I really liked a larger Aloe they are releasing, Aloe rubroviolacea 'Violet'. Tons of Agave as well, it was hard to decide which one I liked the best. I really like the 'Little Sharkskin', so hopefully we can get some of those in soon. If you have never been to RTT, you must go just to see the big hill planting of tons of succulents. Heather told me it used to be the dump pile, definitely a huge improvement! There are plants there you will not see anywhere else. The breeder on staff, Kelly Griffin, travels the world in search of succulent goodness. Keep on tracking the globe for these babies, we love them!