Day 5 brings us to Salinas, CA to visit the Sakata, Takii and Speedling facilities. Each day brings more and more interesting plants. Let’s take a look at what they had to offer.

SuperCal petunia series

SuperCal Petunia is a calibrachoa x petunia hybrid from Sakata. The series has an excellent color range and flower size.

Red Robin Tomato from Sakata will be a great choice for container production. The compact habit and dense branching will provide plenty of tomatoes throughout the season.

Red Robin Tomato

Salvia Summer Jewels Series

Salvia Summer Jewell Series (Salvia coccinea) from Takii will provide color all summer. There is a new purple color for 2016.

Merchandising idea: Look at the creative way Takii presented their Asian vegetable line.

Creative way to merchandise Asian veggies

Melampodium Jackpot Gold

Melampodium Jackpot Gold from Takii is an underused annual that should be a strong performer for our area. I plan to get sample seed and evaluate this plant under our conditions.

Salvia Red Alert showing plenty of flower power

Salvia Red Alert from Hem Genetics should be considered by the landscape trade. The plant has bright red flower spikes, but continues to send secondary flowers as it matures providing nonstop color.

Delizz Starwberry from ABZ Seeds is an F1 hybrid propagated by seed. The plants are compact and well-branched and should produce plenty of fruit on your patio.

Well, that’s a wrap for day 5. I can see the finish line, two days to go.

Delizz Strawberry