About Our Seed Selection and Breeding Program

There are so many flower varieties I could grow out for seed, and believe me I want to grow ALL the things. I’m sure many of you are my kindred spirits in this way.  But in starting over in Vermont, scaling sustainably in a financial, and physical/emotional well-being way are my priorities. So I set some guidelines to help me focus on what types of flower crops I wanted to grow out for seed. There are three main areas of focus for Jig-Bee:

• High yield flowers that are popular with florists
• Hardy annuals with increased resilience
• Color selection for coreopsis, scabiosa, rudbeckia and amaranth
  

High Yield Flowers that are Popular with Florists - My main mission is to grow/breed flowers that have high yields and are in high demand in floral design. Breeding/selecting for higher yields will be one of the selection criteria for all of the plants I grow. Over the years I have found tried and true varieties that produce a lot of stems per plant (more profit per square foot for farmers, yay!) and sell out immediately to my florist customers. Some of these varieties were hard to find from seed companies and/or are lesser known to farmers and floral designers. So my hope is to make the varieties more accessible to everyone. Some examples include: 

• Cress Attraxa
• Marigolds (Red Burning Ember)
• Cosmos White Semi-Double - Psyche White
• Cosmos Cupcakes Blush
• Cosmos Orange
• Phlox Cherry Caramel
• Celosia Apricot
• Larkspur Cloud White

Hardy Annuals with Increased Resilience - I have a keen interest in breeding and selecting hardy annual seedlings that are adapted to light frosts/overwintering. Just think, you buy strawflower seed from me, and the parents of that strawflower seed survived a cold Vermont spring. Imagine knowing that the feverfew seed you purchased comes from parents that survived a Vermont winter. With so much weather uncertainty, I want my seed lines to be put through the paces and be tough! My hope is that I can select for some resilience and make these “cool flowers” even cooler. I doubt I will be able to prove my theory that my seeds are more resilient than another company's seeds or that they won't freeze when temps drop to 30F.  The end goal is for farmers and gardeners to feel a little more confident about planting out hardy annuals in early spring and fall because they know where and how the seed was produced. Our "extra hardy" hardy annuals include:

• Feverfew
• Forget me not (Blue and Ms. Marilyn Lavender)
• Giant Breadseed Poppies
• Strawflower (Berry, Peach, Burgundy)
• Coreopsis (Burgundy, Cinnamon, Gold Seashells)

Color Selection Program - I’m also isolating specific colors from existing mixes or volunteer plants. My basic approach right now is to make selections of colors and characteristics I like from mixes and then grow them out until they are stable. My coreopsis and scabiosa selections are coming along nicely and are close to stable. I had a tough year with the Amaranth and Rudbeckia - the seeds I selected last year had so much variation of color this year - I’ll have to plant them out at least another 2 or 3 years to stabilize them.

• Coreopsis Burgundy Romantic
• Scabiosa Misty Mountain (lavender) and Lavender Berry Picotee
• Amaranth Rose Gold
• Rudbeckia Mustard, Coral Red, and Rose Apricot