Mark Seguin, Sakata’s Global Marketing Manager for cuttings, shares why the plant, a cross between petunia and calibrachoa, earns the “all-weather performance” title.
Ornamental Breeder: What makes SuperCal so super?
Mark Seguin: Unlike traditional petunias, SuperCal are a unique, hybrid cross between a petunia and a calibrachoa. The result is not only a beautiful flower display that’s very common among its parents, but extraordinary garden performance that exceeds both petunias and calibrachoa.
SuperCal Blue
OB: How do they perform in the garden?
MS: They are a cool-season annual. SuperCal are early to flower and very frost-tolerant, so they are ideal for priming early spring sales or early plantings. Conditioned plants can withstand mid-20-degree nights without suffering any yellowing or loss of flowers, which is pretty typical in petunias and calibrachoas. But unlike traditional petunias, the SuperCal flowers stay stable during the rain, and rebound quickly after a heavy shower. What really sets SuperCal apart from the others is their superior heat tolerance. High temperatures brings traditional petunias to their knees — they suffer under the stress of summer heat, while SuperCal continue to perform and shine. That’s been documented and proven in trials throughout Texas, Florida and Mississippi, and they continuously flower throughout the summer.
OB: How long has SuperCal been on the market, and have you made any changes since they were first released?
MS: SuperCal has been on the market now for 8 years, but what’s been slow to develop is the recognition by both growers and consumers about how special this plant is. One of the challenges that SuperCal faced in the early introduction was their lack of uniformity within the series with regard to habit and flower timing. That made it challenging for producers because they weren’t very grower-friendly and required more attention to detail for best results. Since Sakata has addressed that with refinements in the breeding, which has really helped escalate the SuperCal popularity at both the retail and grower levels.
OB: What are some of the benefits for growers?
MS: They have very strong root systems, which makes them easy to propagate, and they are more alkaline tolerant than traditional calibrachoa, which means less leaf yellowing during production and on the retail shelf. Because of their strong cold tolerance, they have a low energy requirement for production, so they are ideal for cold frame or outdoor production applications. Also, many varieties bloom under 11 hour days, eliminating the need for supplemental lighting. I say many varieties because some varieties are early to bloom and some aren’t. That’s a key message for growers — depending on the finish time and finished container, variety selection is critical.
OB: How do they look in the retail environment?
MS: Because SuperCal are sterile, they are going to continually produce an endless supply of really bright, vibrant flowers, which have a high retail appeal. The plants are self-cleaning, so they never require deadheading, and feature a semi-mounding habit, which makes them well suited for quarts, gallons and hanging baskets. They are offered in more than a dozen colors, which can be mixed for attractive, performance-based combinations. And then, of course, customer satisfaction is off the charts. Consumers really see the difference in SuperCal performance in the garden.
OB: How can landscapers and gardeners maintain SuperCal throughout the season?
MS: They require very little maintenance in the landscape, especially when they are planted with a slow-release fertilizer, and only have moderate water requirements. Probably the biggest factor in continuous blooming is that plants have to be well fed throughout the summer, which is why they’re virtually maintenance-free when planted with slow-release fertilizer.
All in all, they really earned the tag of all-weather petunia because of their frost tolerance and ability to perform in the heat.
Want to learn even more about SuperCal? Check out the video with Mark Seguin from the 2015 California Spring Trials, where he talks about new SuperCal varieties for 2016 and how this tough petunia-calibrachoa stands up to rain and heat: http://bit.ly/1EyOylW
Sakata reveals more benefits of the SuperCal line in a podcast that can be found here: http://bit.ly/1wx3FVm.