Black Sorbet™ Violas

Velvety black flowers get noticed

In a landscape full of bright green, pink, red, yellow, and blue you can bet on the black flowers to get noticed. They’re intriguing, of course, because they’re unexpected. Deep, rich velvety black ramps up the drama, and can also act as a neutral background to set off the brilliance of neighboring blooms and foliage. Let’s take a look at two striking black selections from the Sorbet™ viola series. 

A vibrant pink selection from the Jolt™ series

Here are some frilly, hot pink flowers fresh off the front of a Valentine’s Day card. Notice how each has a scarlet ring around the center—very showy. ‘Jolt™ Pink’ is another vibrant selection from the Jolt™ series, which has become a fast favorite for its 50mph color.  

Jolt™—the most heat-tolerant dianthus on the market

Quite simply, this is a great landscaping variety. Jolt™ is the most heat-tolerant dianthus on the market, plus it stands up to cold, rain, and wind while remaining neat and tidy. Plants keep cranking out uniform, eye-popping blooms right up until frost for a long lasting, low maintenance display—our favorite kind. We mass these together for the greatest impact, and use them in containers for bold accents. 

‘Jolt™ Pink’ is a 2015 All-America Selections national winner, with the following reaction from the judges: “Best of the trials! We wish all dianthus performed this well.”

Our bee-friendly ‘Jolt™ Pink’ is available in the 6-inch pot.

An innovative size that made its mark

As pansies go, the 8-inch pot is an innovative size but boy, did it take off last year. Now it’s the best-selling pansy product we grow. Let’s take a look at what makes the 8-inch pansy so popular.

We realize that the growth end for pansies is in the 8-inch size. Breeding has led to big plants with big flowers, like Colossus, that fit a bigger pot—and a bigger pot equals a bigger, bolder display. This is true for the retail bench and for landscape design as well.

There’s a huge difference between the 8-inch pot size and the plants that come in a flat. For a season with limited time, like early spring, landscapers need to maximize the color show immediately—rather than waiting for a smaller pansy to grow to fill a space.

Based on the strength of the 8-inch pansy we introduced the 8-inch viola pot, and it became our best-selling size the first year—by a lot.