It’s all about the plants at the HTA National Plant Show

Brisk business at the HTA National Plant Show

It’s all about the plants

At the HTA National Plant Show in June visitors were treated to a rich selection of introductions to fire up interest in plantaria and houseplant areas.

It was heartening to see an impressive number, more than 137, of new introductions at the HTA National Plant Show in June illustrating the health and vigour of the plant market. Many of the cultivars won’t be ready for stocking until next spring and summer but at the show retailers were placing reserve orders, and nurseries and growers reported steady business with positive responses to their new catalogues and stock lists.

The demand for houseplants continues with suppliers reporting that decorative foliage is the way forward. This held out in the new plant awards with the number of entries in the houseplant category showing the highest increase.

The HTA’s New Plant Awards are a useful barometer of plants likely to appear in the media and be in demand by customers, and this year the Best in Show was Impatiens walleriana ‘Glimmer Appleblossom’. Exhibited by Ball Colegrave, Reading, it is one of seven colours in a new series of double flowering busy lizzies which importantly boast high resistance to impatiens downy mildew. The company’s Gareth Powell says it is now working on ideas and ways of merchandising with point of sale so retailers can easily communicate to customers why ‘Glimmer Appleblossom’ and the other colours in the series work well in all garden situations. “It’s a great consumer product,” says Gareth, “with a good habit, fresh coloured flowers and leaves and we will be promoting it in 2023”. The judges said they were all looking forward to welcoming impatiens back into the garden after a significant time not being able to grow them. Visitors reflected this sentiment by making it their favourite in the Visitors Vote.

Annual and perennial winners

Getting the most marks in the herbaceous perennial category was Geranium ‘Kelly Anne’ touted as a pink ‘Rozanne’. Large, pink-veined flowers appear from late spring to the first frost. It’s a great all-rounder, happy to grow in sun or part shade and tough during times of heat and drought. It was entered into the competition by Newey Perennial Plugs and Liners, West Sussex.

Darren Selvery from Newey, said interest in the geranium was high as it was also for Salvia ‘Pink Amistad’ introduced in May at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

“All remaining stock of the saliva has now gone”, he says, “and we are taking forward orders for next year in significant numbers. We are expecting big sales in 2023.”

Family owned Allensmore Nurseries, Hereford, is celebrating its 50th anniversary supplying garden plants and among the party balloons and bunting was a dahlia with real flower power. Vigorous Dahlia x hybrida ‘Cabaret’ won a Gold medal in the awards and held its rich, velvety claret-coloured blooms on strong, straight stems. It’s one of four in this series, although it’s by far the most robust and eye-catching. The nursery’s Tracey Rowley says it’s a definite one to sell in a 3L pot, if not bigger.

Trees and shrubs

In the Shrub & Climbers category, it was a physocarpus providing three seasons of garden interest with colour changing foliage that was the winner. Grown by Wyevale Nurseries, Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Magic Ball’ has new shoots of bright orange in spring, which turn yellow, through to orange during summer and finally bright red in autumn. Pink flowers in summer add to the display on this easy to grow, compact, ball shaped plant.

Wyevale Nurseries also got a Gold medal for an extremely compact and relatively thornless Rosa ‘Cutie Pie’. Pink edged flowers are produced en-masse making it perfect for a container or front of a border.

Frank P Matthews, Worcestershire always dominates the Trees & Conifers category and this year was no different. Its new crab apple, Malus ‘Halloween’, was the winner and is aptly named as its yellow-orange fruits with a ribbed appearance and short stalks make them look like tiny pumpkins. Displayed with squashes and other pumpkins it’s going to be a real hit in October. For spring sales its semi-double pinky/ white flowers are a draw as most crab apples only have single flowers. Director Stephanie James says it’s been an incredible few years for tree sales. “We could have sold double the number of trees and have been encouraged by how well the Plant a Tree for the Jubilee campaign has gone.”

Trees on a M106 rootstock are being shipped this autumn and Stephanie hopes in the future trees will be available on shorter M27 rootstocks.

Plants for the home

According to Michel Heemskerk from Javado, foliage plants with interesting patterns, shapes and colours and displaying them in ‘rooms’ so customers get an idea of how they might look in a bathroom, for example, is helping sales. He also said retailers shouldn’t underestimate the power of Instagram when it comes to promoting houseplants and to keep a look out for new cultivars including variegated African violets which are being bred in Holland. It’s new Alocaisa ‘Silver Dragon’ won the Housplant category, singled out for its unusual metallic looking and architectural foliage in silver grey combined with a good shelf life in the retail setting

Winning plants at this year’s show included Geranium ‘Kelly Anne’, Dahlia ‘Cabaret’, Physocarpus ‘Magic Ball’ and Rosa ‘Cutie Pie

Malus ‘Halloween’ and the new ‘Silver Dragon’ alocasia alongside one of Javado’s clever ways to display houseplants