Top selling container and patio plants
March 06, 2007
One of Britain’s top suppliers of container and patio plants has released news of this years early season trends. Delamore Young Plants sell plugs to growers who grow them on and sell finished plants to retail nurseries and garden centers. So the trends in Delamore’s sales now will determine what appears on sale to gardeners later in spring.
After last summer’s drought in Britain, sales drought tolerant plants are on the up. Lavender sales are up 22%, with interest very strong in the newer introductions, and geraniums (pelargoniums, that is) are up an astonishing 34% with the Aristo Series bred by PAC-Elsner doing especially well. They also say that this the first year when sales of zonal pelargoniums have overtaken sales of ivy-leaved types. Sales of impatiens are down 5%, consistent with the drought theory.
Basket plants are up 25%, with bacopas, diascias, nemesias and torenias up while petunia sales are down slightly. Callibrachoas are still selling well, but the well-established Million Bells are now being overtaken by the impressive new Noa Series, bred by Danziger in Israel.
Delamore also sell perennials which are still on the rise, especially the more expensive varieties from tissue-culture. Amongst climbers passion flowers and honeysuckles also selling well.
The surprise, given the drought theory, is that sales of fuchsias are up 23% with ‘Lady Boothby’, the “new” “climbing” fuchsia selling especially well. Just to be clear, ‘Lady Boothby’ was first introduced in 1939, it was named for the founder of the British Fuchsia Society.
And it doesn’t climb, like a clematis or morning glory, it’s just unusually vigorous and has often been trained on a wall in a greenhouse or conservatory. It’s also one of the hardier fuchsias, though it was not considered though sufficiently good to receive an award in either the Royal Horticultural Society trials of 1978 or 2005.
Just shows what some inspired marketing of an old plant can achieve!