Portulaca ‘ColorBlast Watermelon Punch’ has magenta stripes

We have two Portulacas new to the industry this year from the Westhoff breeders. These moss roses are innovative because they are bicolors. While the Rio Grande series gives us big, bright tropical-looking blooms, all the flowers are solids. These ColorBlasts add eye-catching stripes to the playing field.

Portulaca ‘Colorblast Mango Mojito’ has orange stripes

‘Purple Robe’ adds loads of charm to intimate settings

If you’re looking for a living plant as a mulch alternative for the summer we have a colorful dwarf groundcover to consider. ‘Purple Robe’ is a long-blooming, shrubby annual that grows in a dense, spreading mound. It’s covered with deep violet-blue cup-shaped flowers. 

Nierembergia is also good as groundcover—the ferny leaves grow thick

‘Mountain Merit’ is bred to supply classic vine-ripened tomatoes

‘Mountain Merit’ has a backstory that’s relevant to us. This cultivar is something of an achievement in Tomato circles because it can produce vine-ripened flavor in a climate hostile to Tomato plants. You see, the folks in North Carolina like market-fresh, vine-ripened Tomatoes, and those Tomatoes have to be grown locally; however, the South has a bad problem with a large variety of Tomato diseases. Does this sound familar?

A typical fruit weighs about 8 ounces—a large salad or small beefsteak

Beautiful foliage sets ‘Lime Sizzler’ apart from the typical medium green

We have a new firebush for you and when we say new, we mean new—‘Lime Sizzler’ was discovered in 2014 in Florida. Boy, is it hard-to-get. We featured it in a Field Day trial a while ago where it was a hit with our crowd. Beautiful variegated foliage sets it apart from the typical medium green; however, ‘Lime Sizzler’ disappeared from the market for the next two years. This year, it reappeared in limited quantities so we snapped it up as soon as it was available.

This firebush is new to the playing field