A Trip to Goldsmith Seeds

We got invited to the Goldsmith Seeds Pack Trials and it was a real treat. They even fed us a wonderful steak lunch with fresh asparagus and strawberry shortcake for desert. More impressive than the food though were the displays and the peeks at what new plant varieties they are working on getting out to the public for the future. Goldsmith has such beautiful test grounds that are so nice to walk through and observe what is up and coming. The displays inside the show were just as well thought out and full of creative ideas as well as beautiful plants.

There were so many things that caught our attention that it is hard to know where to begin. It was amazing to me to see how beautiful their cyclamen looked when I had just thrown out what was left of ours at the nursery because they were getting just a little too tired looking. They even had beds of poinsettias that were look fresh and fabulous. This is a handing pot of some sort that was full of cyclamen all blooming and so close together...stunning. There were some with several colors of cyclamen that were also beautiful. The picture to the left shows a display of Cyclamen in a bed where they had painted some branches in the center a bright red, a real attention getter. The cyclamen are all in pots placed close together then they used a lot of bark around them to hide the pots. We saw people going around with watering cans at the end of the show touching up a few pots here and there...and I complain about watering a few areas a day at the nursery...

This is a new rudbeckia called 'Tiger Eye'. Be sure to keep your eye out for this later in the summer. It looks like it stays a nice height of about 18" and is loaded with blooms. I am told that it doesn't winter over very well, but if it even goes into the fall looking this spectacular it would be worth planting to get that great golden color.

I fell in love with the mounds of schizanthus they had in a few displays, but research has told me that they could be a little difficult here as they don't like too much heat or too much cold. They need light to bloom, but like a little shade in hot areas. Hmmm...I will have to admire them from afar or just look back over the pictures from time to time. I guess I will have to put them in my screen saver pictures so I can view them from the computer.

Michael eyed this achillea which we were both sure was a form of gypsophila until we read the tag and had to read it several times to believe that it was what it said. One source says that it is a nice substitute for bacopa since it is drought tolerant. It only grows to about 8-12" and gets about 18" wide. Loves the sun and heat. This sounds like something to keep your eye out for since we are in a drought here in California.

there will be lots more to come...we took lots of pictures and have lots of exciting plants to talk about after a good night's rest!

Keeping things growin'!

Ferne & Michael