Meet the Floret Originals
It’s hard to believe that after 7 long years of work, we’re just 2 short weeks away from finally releasing the Floret Original seed varieties out into the world! I feel like I’ve been waiting for this moment for an eternity and can’t wait to see them all growing in your gardens and on your farms this coming season. The official release date is Tuesday, February 6.
I thought now would be a great time to introduce you to these magical little plant souls and share a bit more about what makes them so special. Each variety has a unique personality and while at first glance some might look a bit similar, they are all quite different when you get to know them.
I’ve organized this post into three main sections. First, we’ll explore the 12 celosia varieties that we’re offering, then deep dive into zinnias (we have 10 beautiful mixes!), and end with dahlias which I know so many people are excited about.
But before we dive into this introduction, if you don’t already know the backstory about this project, be sure to read Floret Originals: An Update on our Breeding Program.
The first group of plants that I want to share with you is celosia. The reason I’ve chosen to highlight them first is because I feel like they are always passed over in favor of fancier, showier blooms!
However, if you’re growing flowers to arrange with, these heat lovers are an indispensable addition to your cutting garden and have your back when it comes to churning out bouquet ingredients.
These hardworking plants are vigorous, free-flowering, and easy to grow. Their fuzzy, velvet-like flowers come in a distinct range of shapes, including fans, plumes, and brains that are a wonderful accent for arrangements, plus they can be dried and used any time of the year.
‘Autumn Blaze’ is a riot of rich fall tones, including coral, copper, bronze, cherry, rose gold, rhubarb, and amber. The iridescent shimmering plumes come in a multitude of shapes and sizes, including dense candelabras, long, wispy spires, and textural spiky quills.
Stocky, heavily branching plants have a unique range of stem and foliage colors. From a distance, the plants look as if they are about to burst into flames!
‘Glowing Embers’ is a selection that was made from ‘Autumn Blaze’ and features a narrower range of colors including copper, bronze, coral, smoky rose, muted tangerine, and gold. The velvety plumes come in various shapes and sizes, including dense textural clusters, feather-like wands, and long, slender wisps.
Stocky, heavily branching plants have green foliage with a bronze cast that complements the unusual muted coloring found in the flowers.
‘Rose Gold’ is another special color range that was discovered in ‘Autumn Blaze’ a few years back. The color palette is much more narrow and includes rose gold, blush, and champagne plumes that look as if they have been dusted with iridescent glitter.
The stocky, heavily branching plants have dark ruby-red stems with cranberry-veined leaves that perfectly offset the antique-looking metallic flower heads. They are a flower arranger’s dream!
If you’re only looking at the plumes cut from the plant, one might think that ‘Vintage Rose’ is the same as ‘Rose Gold’, but the two, while similarly colored, are actually quite different.
‘Vintage Rose’ is twice the height of ‘Rose Gold’ and much more feathery. The flowers are a heartbreakingly beautiful blend of blush, pewter, and sunbleached velvet that looks like it’s from another era. It’s the perfect color range for wedding work.
Next up is ‘Summer Sherbet’. This beautiful, free-flowering mix produces giant velvety plumes in rose-pink, blush, coral, and the softest peach. The heat-loving plants have light apple-green foliage and long, slender stems that are perfect for arranging.
The color palette is super useful for many different types of bouquets because it mixes so well with other ingredients.
A few years back, Eric (our seed specialist) started experimenting with trying to isolate the most textural, feathery plumes in the ‘Summer Sherbet’ mix, and create a narrower, more vivid color range, and that’s how ‘Spun Sugar’ was born.
This beautiful warm, glowing mix produces giant shimmering, textural plumes in a range of peachy tangerine, soft coral, pinky apricot, and smoky rose. These productive plants have long, slender stems, giant spaghetti-like flower heads, and light green foliage.
In the early days, ‘Summer Sherbet’ was a much broader range of colors which included some yellows and greens. I had always wanted to tease the fresh, clean green out of this variety and finally succeeded with ‘Limonata’.
It is a beautiful pale creamy lime blend that looks more like a foliage than a flower. Plants have a vigorous branching habit and produce an abundance of long, wispy chartreuse spires that add a freshness to arrangements. The colors mix well with almost everything. ‘Limonata’ is similar to a hybrid variety of celosia called ‘Sylphid’, but the great thing about this beauty is that you can easily save the seed from it.
‘Raspberry Lemonade’ also originated from ‘Summer Sherbet’, but has a much more saturated color range not often found in the celosia family. What makes it so unique is the dusty, smoky coloring that has a sun-faded quality.
Plants have a vigorous branching habit and produce dense, textural spires in shades of smoky raspberry, sangria, watermelon, and the occasional lemon yellow.