The time to start ordering and planning for next year is already upon us, so I’ve been reviewing my records to assess this year’s successes and failures. We’ve grown lots of new things and some of them were real winners that we definitely plan to grow again. A few were not so great, but I wouldn’t discount them altogether because we always like to give a plant a second chance before we decide we don’t like it. Here are our recommendations for plants that you might want to grow this fall or next year.

Anemones
We fall-planted corms of ‘Galilee’ anemone last year and were amazed at how early, cold-tolerant, tall and productive this variety is. We planted the corms in raised beds in the unheated hoophouse on November 4, and we started seeing flowers sporadically beginning in February. By April 1, we had enough quantity and stem length to sell them. The stems got longer and stronger each week, some growing as tall as 20 inches. We have grown Jerusalem anemones before, and ‘Galilee’ is a big improvement for the early hoophouse or greenhouse. Galilee is more tolerant of low light levels and cool temperatures than Jerusalem anemone.

Gloeckner is offering two other series of anemones this fall: Meron, which is recommended for outdoor production and has stems up to 16 inches; and Carmel, which reportedly has bigger flowers than Jerusalem or Galilee, and also is 16 inches tall. If you have a market for flowers in early April, and a hoophouse in which to grow them, give anemones a try. They are one of the earliest flowers, and customers snap them up the minute you offer them.

Campanula
We always grow Campanula ‘Champion’ the annual variety that has long stems of big single bells in dark blue, lavender, pink or white. This year we tried the new C. rapunculus ‘Heavenly Blue’ which is a much different kind of campanula. Each plant sends up as many as 15 thin, wiry stems covered with tiny lavender bell-shaped florets. It’s an airy blue presence in a bouquet — not a focal flower, but a very nice filler. We got ours planted in the hoophouse on April 15, which is late for campanula, so they did not get to 32 inches, as the catalog said they would. Campanulas need to be planted as early as possible and protected from frost so the plants have time to develop before they send up stems in response to lengthening days. But they did reach 24 inches, which made them usable for most purposes. The only down side to these is that they all bloomed at once, so we had them for only two weeks.

Cosmos
A new variety, Cosmos ‘Double Click,’ has fully double flowers up to 3 inches wide in the usual cosmos colors of white, pink and rose. It can be grown spring or fall. We planted it in the hoophouse in March and got strong production until July. The vase life was fine, longer than the singles. Seed was from Johnny’s.

Delphiniums
We use our unheated high tunnels for delphiniums and dianthus, which we plant as 200-cell plugs in October. Several seed companies serve as brokers for plug producers; we use Gloeckner Seed Company but you can also order from Harris Seed, Germania Seed and Ball Seed. You need to order plugs now, as most have at least a 10-week lead time. If you don’t order in time, ask your broker about availability for the varieties you want. Many plug growers overproduce their most popular varieties, and you may get lucky and find what you need.

We have been growing the Clear Springs series of delphiniums for several years, and this year we added the newer Aurora series and were very impressed. The Auroras are about the same size as Clear Springs — which is not as tall as Pacific Giants, so more useful for bouquet work. But their florets were more closely spaced, and the stems were stronger. We also noticed that the Auroras were much more heat tolerant; they continued to produce strong, tall flowers until mid-July, about two weeks longer than the Clear Springs. This great variety is available in blue, deep purple, lavender, light blue, and now white. This fall I plan to order all Auroras, and abandon Clear Springs.
We don’t leave our delphiniums in for a second year, even though they definitely will survive winter and bloom again in spring. We have found that the plants are too tall and lanky and susceptible to foliar disease going into a second season. So we pull them all out in fall and replant with fresh plugs.

Dianthus
Dianthus is another important hoophouse crop for us. We plant it the same way as delphinium, in 200-cell plugs in October. We do leave some plants over winter for a second and even third year of bloom, depending on how good the plants look in fall. This was a fantastic spring for dianthus and the plants are big and healthy, so I expect we’ll leave at least portions of each variety we grow. Our standbys are Electron and Tall Doubles. This year we grew the new Sweet series and we will definitely be growing it again. First, it’s the earliest of any of our fall-planted dianthus. Second, the colors are all nice – the earliest is a bright coral, followed by white and a clear red. Third, it does not require vernalization, so you can plant it in fall and again in spring and get a long harvest.

We seeded Sweet Scarlet in the greenhouse on Feb. 23, planted into the field on May 5 and had flowers in July. Unfortunately, dianthus doesn’t like wind so the stems were short. Next year we will spring-plant it in the hoophouse for wind protection. We’ll also spring plant Amazon Neon, another variety that doesn’t need vernalization. With this strategy, we should have dianthus April through July.

Millet
The newest of the ornamental millets is ‘Jester.’ It has bright green-and-purple foliage, more attractive to my eye than ‘Purple Majesty.’ Once the summer heat really set in, though, the foliage darkened and was only slightly brighter than the Purple Majesty foliage. It’s better for containers because it’s smaller, and some florists might prefer it, but its seed heads are the same, and it has the same effect overall.

Sunflowers
Enough already! We have enough sunflowers! That’s how I feel every year when I see the ever-growing lists of varieties. It’s too much choice, and it gets confusing. My approach is to grow a black-centered sunflower with substantial gold petals as my main crop, with a green-centered variety for spring, and a few bronze or red-and-gold bicolors for fall. I have been happy with Sunbright’ for summer and ‘Sunbright Supreme’ for spring and fall and the slightly more golden-petaled varieties Sunrich Orange and Pro-Cut Orange. I also really like the more recent introduction ‘Sunrich Gold’ which has a green center that looks good with spring’s pastel flowers. ‘Pro-Cut Bicolor’ is good for fall.
This year, for the ASCFG trials, I grew three new varieties: ‘Sunrich Orange Summer,’ ‘Solara,’ and ‘Premier Lemon.’

‘Sunrich Orange Summer’ is billed as 10 days earlier than ‘Sunbright’ – 60 days from seed to bloom. It’s a great early sunflower, very similar in appearance to ‘Sunbright and ‘Sunrich Orange.’ I did not like the Premier Lemon, which was spindly grown in early spring, with small flowers of a somewhat drab yellow hue. ‘Solara’ was a great sunflower, with strong stems, thick petals, and a nice gold color. It was as good as ‘Pro-Cut Orange.’

In short, two of the three were very nice, they fit the bill, and I’d be happy to grow them again. I did not grow them in summer because the trial provides only 100 seeds of each variety, but I definitely would recommend them for early production.

Tulips
We grow tulips in the unheated hoophouse, and they begin to bloom the very last part of March or first few days of April. The single late varieties — which are the least expensive bulbs, plus the biggest, tallest flowers — make up the bulk of our tulip order. But every year we try a few different types of tulips. In years past, we’ve had mixed results with the parrot tulips; they’re always gorgeous, but sometimes they’re too short for our markets. This year, we grew several lily-flowered tulips. They were tall, but attractive to aphids, while the single late varieties right next to them were barely touched by aphids. Who knows why? ‘Ballade’ was a bland pink and white stripe that I wouldn’t grow again. ‘Ballerina’ was a luminous orange that enchanted everyone who saw it. At night, it drew closed to just a slender stem of orange and by day it opened almost flat to reveal its golden interior, glowing like sunshine. You can probably tell I really liked this one. It was worth the aphids.

Easter falls on April 8 next year so if you can get tulips by that time, you’ll be able to sell them. A good selection of Easter-egg pastel colors in the tough but elegant single late category (also known as French tulips by florists) are: Avignon, Dordogne, Menton, Mrs. John T. Scheepers, and Renown.

Bulb prices have risen steadily the past five years, and now even the least-expensive single late varieties are 23-25 cents each plus shipping. It’s not as profitable to grow hoophouse tulips as it once was, but it’s still a great way to start the season.

Zinnias
We loved the new Zowie Yellow Flame zinnia, which is yellow with an orange and purple center. It’s the perfect flower for a hot summer bouquet. It literally stopped people in mid-sentence. Unfortunately, the seed is expensive – about 10 cents per seed. It’s not as big or tall as Benary’s Giants, which is our standard, but the color combination makes this worth the money.

Another pricey new zinnia is ‘Uproar Rose’. It’s a great color of deep rose pink in a big, dahlia flowered zinnia. As much as I liked the color, which is different from any of the Benary’s Giants colors, I’m not sure yet whether it will be so fabulous that it will justify the expense.

We’re going to wait to see how well these perform over the next month before we decide to grow them again.

Speaking of Benary’s Giants, we grew them as separate colors this year, and have decided this is the way to go. The flowers in the separate colors seem much bigger than those in the mix. They are easier to pick for specific bouquet themes, too. And the stripes of color in the field are charming. It costs a bit more to do separate colors, but seed is so cheap in the first place that this seems worth paying a bit more.
I’ve also been curious about whether there’s really any difference between these and some of the other named zinnia varieties one sees in retail seed catalogs. I grew Burpee’s ‘Purple Prince’ and it looks just like the Benary’s Purple. Then I found this seed packet illustration. The date isn’t printed on it, but from the 10-cent price, I assume it’s pretty old. I paid $4.25 for my packet. What’s old is new again. ï ¹

Lynn Byczynski is the editor and publisher of Growing for Market and the author of The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers, available to GFM subscribers at a 20% discount. Send $19.95 (Regularly $24.95) plus $5 shipping to GFM, PO Box 3747, Lawrence KS 66046
Order with a credit card at www.growingformarket.com; or phone at 800-307-8949.