Artemisia At TPIE 2022
I hope you were able to attend the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE) in Tampa last month to see the latest trends in foliage, floral and tropicals. It’s a great show to experience what’s new! While I’m on the subject of trends and “new,” please let me introduce Darwin Perennial’s latest breeding success in Artemisia – SunFern Arcadia and Olympia. Both of these varieties, hardy to zone 4, were showcased at the Ball Seed booth at TPIE and they received a lot of attention.
Attendees couldn’t keep their hands off of them! They kept touching their soft fronds and were amazed at the fern-like texture. Many struggled to guess the species. “What exactly are these?” many exclaimed.
These, my friends and colleagues, are perennial-type ferns unlike any traditional ferns.
The SunFern Collection has many features and benefits:
- It has novel, fern-like plant texture that thrives in full sun,
- Resilience in shipping with drought tolerance (at retail and in the home garden),
- Disease and pest resistance,
- They’re not sensitive to pesticides,
- Plus SunFern is non-invasive – they won’t take over the garden!
Arcadia (shown above on the right in the hands of our teammate Christine) has gorgeous medium-green leaves and grows 14-16 in. high. Olympia (above on the left with Jen) shows off dark-green leaves with striking red stems. It grows slightly taller at 16-18 in.
Both can be used in the urban landscape or as a companion plant in a mixed container.
SunFern is available as an unrooted cutting or as a liner through the perennial supply chain. For best growing practices, watch our archived training videos at our Darwin Perennials University page (available in both English and Spanish translation).