Noordlierweg, De Lier, The Netherlands.

Talking about Plants around the world

Business Manager Australia & New Zealand Tony Collins attended the Flower Trials for the first time. “This is truly an amazing event. I meet my customers here on the other side of the world, but we all talk about plants here. It’s amazing how much there is to see and do in this week. Now my clients understand better that it’s not just me in Australia, but that there is a huge team behind me helping my customers wherever they can.”  

From left to right: Caroline Phillips, Scott Franklin, Bailey Pohlman, Tony Collins, Emily Mason, Prathamesh Ghorpade.

Plants for Today

Head of Marketing APAC Michael van Baekel: “This years’ theme was Plants for Today. In the Plants for Today’s Grower-segment we showed our key innovations. The one that really stood out this year was Sunfinity Double. As a brand, Sunfinity is already known to have redefined the concept of Sunflowers altogether. Sunfinity’s promise is ‘Endless Blooms, All summer long’ and since years it has been keeping this promise worldwide. We now introduce a truly remarkable Sunfinity Yellow/Red Bicolor from seeds and pre-launch the vegetative Sunfinity Double.” 

Sunfinity is very suitable for landscape projects, as can be read in this Landscape Inspiration Leaflet:

Landscape inspiration leaflet 

Go directly to Sunfinity Double
 

Key Account Manager Amjad Iqbal is quite familiar with this extraordinary product: “Our client in Thailand is very excited about Sunfinity and we just received images from our Technical Sales Manager Triet in Vietnam, on our WhatsApp group. He has visited a grower in Vietnam, where Sunfinity will be the centerpiece of a beautiful landscape project.” 

Customers from APAC could already get a sneak peek on the Penny Pro, which will be launched in APAC in 2026. This series will be an improvement on the already leading Viola cornuta series Penny. Penny Pro has a stronger root system and even better seed quality. The introduction of Penny Pro follows shortly after the introduction of Delta Pro, the most programmable large-flowered Pansy series with the earliest and most uniform flowering period of any Viola x wittrockiana series.

Inside the Garden Centers

In the Plants for Today’s Retailer the visitors could imagine themselves in real European Garden Centers.

In the Plants for Todays Retailer the Erysimum linifolium was the real showstopper. Erysistible Fire brings a unique color in the perennials segment and flowers from early spring till late autumn. The spectacular colors change with the plants maturity. 

Cyclamen is a crop that more and more Southern Asian customers are willing to try. Not every location in tropical climates may be suitable for cyclamen, but more and more well-developed growers in cooler areas are able to produce high quality cyclamen flowers. 
In the Plants for Today’ s Consumer-segment Highlights: the concept “Home Garden Bouquets” was presented. This is a selection of varieties that can be put in the garden and picked for a bouquet in the vase in the house. This way consumers can enjoy flowers outside as well as inside. The selected varieties have long and strong stems making them suitable for the vase. The varieties are also selected for long vase life ensuring a rich consumer experience.

Standing tall

Syngenta Flowers is known for its resilience and robust genetics, very suitable for landscape applications. For landscaping, growers and project developers seek the strongest genetics that can survive any weather condition. Syngenta Flowers has bred a portfolio of the sturdiest genetics that can cope with weather extremes in the garden or landscape design. They require minimal input and ensure a long colorful display.

In the Landscape displays the tall and dramatic spikes of Digitalis purpurea Dottie really stood out.

Heat Lovers

Growers from India showed interest in heat loving perennials like the Echinacea purpurea series from Syngenta Flowers: Prairie Blaze and Prairie Splendor. Prairie got his name from the American plains where the species was found in the wild. This coneflower holds a uniform single color. The variety is from seeds, making it much easier to handle compared to tissue culture varieties. Prairie provides compact but well branching plants. 

Product Manager Prahtamesh Ghorpade explains to the growers: “Prairie Splendor is proud holder of both the Fleuroselect Gold Medal as well as the Greenchoice Grower Medal of Excellence. This nice tall, drought tolerant heat lover is a magnet for bees and butterflies in the tropical gardens. The Prairie Splendor Compact is valued by its short culture time and can be applied in both pots as well as in the landscape.”  

Inspiration

In autumn, Syngenta Flowers will again participate in the Cultivars Trials of Gardens by the Bay. Its renewed technical team in Singapore got a lot of inspiration from the product displays at Flowers Trials. Many more series will be trialed in the dome. But Gardens by the Bay is now also developing a landscape trial to see which crops are strong enough to stand the tropical heat and humidity.

Director Heng Whoo Kiat offered a copy of A Blossoming City Garden. This booklet was issued with the 10th year anniversary of Gardens by the Bay. Gardens by the Bay is a Singaporean City Garden with over 1.5 million plants.

Meeting with friends

For the Syngenta Flowers APAC Customer Service Team the Flower Trials is the unique opportunity to catch up with customers. Here Parekh Parish catches up with Amber Verberne and Anna Hlavova to discuss the challenges of exporting into the India flowers market. 
 

From left to right Amber Verberne, Anna Hlavova (Customer Service APAC), Paresh Parekh (VD Parekh)
 

Also FS-Bloom from Japan visited the Flowers Trials. 

Kentaro Uchida: “Syngenta Flowers is the only breeding company who is really focusing on the Landscaping segment successfully in Japan. We trial many genetics and Syngenta Flowers genetics works very well for us.”
 

FS-Bloom has strong ties with multiple Japanese theme parcs and large-scale gardens, who are invited for personal tours in their outdoor trial fields.  
 

Michael van Baekel (Head of Marketing APAC), Satoshi Suzuki (Head of Sales FS-Bloom, Kentaro Uchida (Head of Production FS Bloom), Mark Schermer (Head of Syngenta Flowers).