{"id":47,"date":"2007-03-18T13:49:58","date_gmt":"2007-03-18T21:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=47"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:25","slug":"halo-hydrangeas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/halo-hydrangeas\/","title":{"rendered":"Halo Hydrangeas"},"content":{"rendered":"

HALO HYDRANGEAS
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every once in awhile a new plant or group of plants comes along that seems to embody all of the prevailing horticultural trends.\u00a0 It happened in 2006, when Hines Horticulture, one of America’s biggest wholesale plant growers, introduced its Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2.\u00a0 This spring these archetypal twenty-first century plants will be widely available in nursery and garden centers.\u00a0 It’s interesting take a look at the assortment of ingredients that breeders and merchandisers stirred together when they concocted this new product line.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Shrubs: <\/strong>In the relentless quest to cater to busy gardeners’ needs for easy-care plants, marketers have discovered the enormous potential of flowering shrubs.\u00a0 As colorful as many perennials, shrubs cover more space and generally require less maintenance.\u00a0 One mature hydrangea, for example, can fill the same size space as a score of perennials and provide lots of colorful, long-lasting summer flowers to liven up the garden and fill vases in the house.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Adaptable and Shade Tolerant: <\/strong>Hydrangeas of all kinds are hot right now because they grow in a wide range of conditions and provide lovely flowers. \u00a0Most flourish in light to moderate shade, making them attractive to the many gardeners whose sunny space is limited.\u00a0 The old-fashioned “mophead”\u009d types have been beloved for generations, while other varieties, like lace cap and oak leaf hydrangeas, have increased enormously in popularity over the last fifteen years.\u00a0 Overall, hydrangeas have only one problematic trait–a need for consistent moisture.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Breeding Improvements: <\/strong>Over <\/strong>the course of the last decade breeders have been hard at work creating hydrangeas that are chock full of desirable, never-before-seen traits.\u00a0 In 2003, Bailey Nurseries, another industry giant, introduced Endless Summer\u00e2\u201e\u00a2, a hydrangea that blooms on both old and new growth, thereby insuring plenty of flowerheads even in parts of the country where late spring frosts may kill buds on the old wood.\u00a0 Hines Horticulture’s Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 feature a color breakthrough–innovative bi-colored or picotee flowers, with each petal edged in white or a contrasting color.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

International Cross Fertilization: <\/strong>The horticultural world has grown smaller, with breeders in many countries working to produce new plants for consumers all over the globe.\u00a0 The Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 were developed in Japan, given German-sounding cultivar names and eventually introduced in the United States by an established American firm.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Trademarked Names: <\/strong>Breeders originally gave six of the seven Halo series hydrangeas variety names that start with “Frau”\u009d, the German word that corresponds to the English word “Mrs.”\u009d\u00a0 Frau Mariko, for example is a mophead-type hydrangea with blue petals tipped in white.\u00a0 Hines discarded the clunky-sounding “Frau”\u009d names, and rechristened the hydrangeas with trademarked names containing the word “angel”\u009d.\u00a0 Demure Frau Mariko is now the celestial-sounding Angel Wings\u00e2\u201e\u00a2.\u00a0 Mariko’s sibling, Frau Nobuko, with white-tipped pink petals, has become the beatific Angel Smile\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Series Configuration\/Big Marketing Support: <\/strong>It is much more cost effective to make one giant marketing effort for seven plants than seven separate marketing efforts for individual varieties, so the seven “Angel”\u009d hydrangeas were grouped under the trademarked name Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2.\u00a0 Hines will provide retailers with ample marketing support for the line, in the hopes that people will come to recognize the trademarked name and associate it with beauty and quality.\u00a0 Grouping similar plants under one recognizable name also means that garden center patrons may be inclined to buy several Angels at once.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Small Size: <\/strong>Container gardening is one of the fastest growing horticultural market segments, and Hines is working hard to get a hydrangea on every deck, porch and patio in America.\u00a0 At about three feet high and three feet wide, Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 are more compact than most older varieties.\u00a0 This makes them a good fit for smaller garden spaces, not to mention large pots or tubs.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Vivid Color: <\/strong>Most gardeners still love color and the various Angels are nothing if not colorful.\u00a0 The seven varieties array themselves with showy flowers in shades of cream, blue, blue-purple, rose or pink, with contrasting picotee edging.\u00a0 Exact flower colors depend on the acidity of the soil in which the plants grow, but vivid color is a given.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Are Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 destined for garden superstar status?\u00a0 Only time will tell.\u00a0 Heavenly names, lovely pictures and millions of dollars worth of marketing support can work wonders, but real garden success stories take longer to develop.\u00a0 A pretty plant may inspire a gardener to buy two pots at once.\u00a0 A great plant will inspire a gardener to buy a second or third plant, two or three or five years later.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALO HYDRANGEAS \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every once in awhile a new plant or group of plants comes along that seems to embody all of the prevailing horticultural trends.\u00a0 It happened in 2006, when Hines Horticulture, one of America’s biggest wholesale plant growers, introduced its Halo Hydrangeas\u00e2\u201e\u00a2.\u00a0 This spring these archetypal twenty-first century plants will be widely available … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1731,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/1731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}