Top of Ball’s 2024 picks
From Ball’s vantage point, the 2024 plants already judged to stand out from the crowd include the miniature Dahlia ‘Dalina Maxi Starburst’ Pink, Coleus (Solenostemon) ‘Coral Candy’, Allium ‘Bubble Bath’ and Calibrachoa Can-Can ® ‘Oriental’.
Ball’s Marketing Manager Stuart Lowen says fashions change, as do the requirements of gardeners. He says annual bedding remains popular, and that breeders have been working hard to improve and develop different types. His recommendations include the punchy new colour combinations for calibachoa, or ‘million bells’, a plant that has undergone a transformation over the past two decades. “They are so much better than they were 20 years ago,” says Stuart of this popular choice for hanging baskets. “They used to get quite straggly and flower on the tips with nothing on top. Now we’re seeing a far better coverage on the branches with much larger flowers.”
New varieties of petunia set to prove popular in 2024 include the Early Wave Series that flower in a shorter number of days and Surfinia® Heartbeats, with its endearing pattern of five soft pink hearts. Meanwhile, ‘Blueberry Sky’ has been added to the ‘Sky’ range of petunias, which burst onto the gardening scene in 2016 with ‘Night Sky’.
This year coleus – now known as solenostemon - is set to take centre stage in many containers, with new colour combinations, bold patterns and rich textures.
Stuart is particularly looking forward to seeing more summer snapdragons, or Angelonia, in 2024. These plants cope well with heat and drought and are attractive to pollinators.
While bedding and annuals remain popular, Ball has witnessed the increasing popularity of perennials. Among the new plants for 2024 is a compact Verbena bonariensis called ‘Bonnie Blue’, topped with light lavender flowers, Allium ‘Bubblebath’, which blooms from July to September, and the stunning Dicentra ‘Amore Titanium’ with long-lasting white petals and glaucous blue fern-like foliage.
When it comes to shrubs, some of the breeding work has been geared towards producing more compact versions of old favourites. Stand out new introductions include Weigela ‘Prism Magic Carpet’, which has dark pink trumpet-like flowers and stunning foliage that begins as a fresh green and develops into warm apricot-orange, and the evergreen subshrub Teucrium ‘Indyho’, which copes well with warm dry conditions and produces larger, longer and deeper blue blooms from May to September.
The trend for growing our own vegetables and fruit is also embraced by breeders, who have come up with a selection of compact plants for containers. Thompson & Morgan has added several new varieties to its range including a sweet and juicy heart-shaped tomato called ‘Heartbreakers Vita’ and compact sweetcorn ‘Pot of Gold’, which can be grown in a patio container.
The world of gardening does not stand still, which means there’s much to discover as 2024 unfolds. Here’s just a flavour of what’s in store...