It’s not that often a new variety comes along that captivates the industry with not only its stunning appearance, but also possesses the attributes of easy-

to-grow, long-lasting shelf-life, great garden performance throughout the season, and the ability to sell-through at retail quickly. Celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’ is one of those plants. With its excellent, bright red foliage and long-lasting plumes of flowers, as well as its ability to be sold in the prime bedding plant weeks and uti-lized as a season-extender, ‘Dragon’s Breath’ is poised to become one of the hottest new varieties on the market.

There are three primary cultural factors to consider when producing ‘Dragon’s Breath’ celosia: photoperi-odic response, fertilizer formulations and environmental factors.

Photoperiodic Response

Celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’ is an obligate short-day plant, meaning in order to flower, the plants require less than 11 hours of day-length. Celosia generally is able to initiate flowering at day 14-21 after sowing. In order for celosia plugs to bulk up enough prior to flower initiation, it

may be necessary to extend the day-length greater than 12 hours. This will depend on the time of year and geographical location. Once plants have started flower development, a period of 14-21 days under short days should be sufficient to maintain continued development. Therefore, it is necessary to always be aware of the natural day-length during the growing period, and either extend the day-length to bulk up plants, or apply short-day conditions if neces-sary for flower initiation.

Fertilizer FormulationsOne of ‘Dragon’s Breath’ celosia’s

best attributes is its brilliant, deep red foliage. This is the result of the plant’s ability to grow and thrive without normal amounts of ammo-nium and phosphorous usually needed for adequate plant growth. After transplanting and the young plants have rooted out to the sides of the containers, decrease the amounts of ammonium and phosphorous by either feeding with fertilizer formu-lations with lower amounts of these two nutrients, or by decreasing the number of fertilizer applications throughout its growing period. A 15-3-20 or 14-2-14 formulation with a targeted soil EC of .75-1.0 are two

Celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’

cultuRe connection

Sakata’S lateSt winner iS hot, hot, hot!

By Ken Harr

66 | gpn | SEPTEMBER 2015 | www.gPnmag.com

Crop Culture report

‘Dragon’s Breath’ celosia boasts bright red, long-lasting plumes of flowers.

cultuRe connectionCrop Culture report

good recommendations for growing on ‘Dragon’s Breath’. Remember to keep adequate potassium, magnesium and boron levels in the fertilizer appli-cations to prevent any twisting, tip abortion, or discoloration of the crop’s foliage.

environmental FactorsBecause of its short-day require-

ment to initiate flowering, celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’ can be grown for several different applications. Under normal spring bedding plant pro-duction plans, ‘Dragon’s Breath’ can be grown in 1-quart, 2.5-quart, 1-gallon containers and larger, as well as in mixed combinations where the striking red foliage will pose as an excellent backdrop of its other component plants. The plugs should be started under long-day conditions to be bulked-up, then placed under the natural short days of late winter for flower development.

For summer production specifi-cally for landscape purposes, ‘Drag-on’s Breath’ can be grown under natural long days where they will produce larger plants with deep red foliage. Again, the plants will serve as an excellent background for brightly colored blooms such as Sakata’s new marigold ‘Proud Mari’, or Double Profusion zinnias. ‘Dragon’s Breath’ plants will then begin to produce blooms in the late summer and fall months, extending the bright land-scape color well into September, October and November depending on the local climate.

In the deep southern states or far western states where the danger of frost is minimal, ‘Dragon’s Breath’ can be grown for containers or in the landscape under natural short days, producing shorter plants but with larger and luxurious deep red to maroon plumes of color.

In all of these scenarios, it is nec-essary to schedule the crops accord-ingly to produce what is required for the growers’ customers. Will it be plants in bloom; vegetative plants for the landscape; or something in-between? The versatility of celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’ can supply all of these needs.

Plant growth Regulators

Because celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’

is an obligate short-day plant, the finished height can be regulated by the amount of day-length it receives at specific points in its crop time. If plants are grown under short days early in plug production, f lower initiation will occur and the

finished crop will be short in height. Conversely, if the plants are grown under long days and kept in a vegetative stage, the finished height will be taller. If PGR applications are required, B-Nine (daminozide) at 1,000-2500 ppm can be sprayed

A N N U A L S | P E R E N N I A L S | P O T T E D P L A N T S | C U T F L O W E R S

S e e w h a t ’s b l o o m i n g a tN A . D u m m e n O r a n g e . c o m

Best Osteos pe r mum se r ies ,hand s d ow n .

• Incredible color range• Perfect for early season programs

• High consumer appeal

MARGARITA RIOJA RED

OSTEOSPERMUMMARGARITA

MARGARITA SEPIA

MARGARITA SOFT PINK

The winner of the 17th annual GPN/

Nexus Intern Scholarship will receive:

• A check for $3,000

• His or her photo on the cover of GPN

• An article about him or her in GPN

• An expense-paid trip to the Cultivate‘16 —

July 9-12, 2016

• A full Cultivate‘16 registration, compliments

of AmericanHort

To be considered, applicants must meet

the following requirements:

• Enrolled in a 4-year accredited university

during 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.

• Working on an undergraduate degree

in fl oriculture.

• Completed a greenhouse internship in 2015.

If all requirements are met, applicants

should send the following to the address

on the right:

• A cover letter stating what university

the applicant attends and requesting

consideration for the scholarship.

• A letter of recommendation on university

letterhead from the applicant’s academic

advisor.

• A minimum 1,000-word essay describing the

intern experience including who the applicant

interned for, what his or her responsibilities

were and what the applicant learned.

Essays will be judged by a panel of industry

experts on the quality of the experience,

knowledge gained and the ability to describe

the experience.

www.americanhort.orgSpecial thanks to AmericanHort for donating a

4-day Cultivate ‘15 registration to the winner.

The deadline is October 21, 2015.

GPN/Nexus Intern Scholarship

Tim Hodson

GPN

3030 W. Salt Creek Lane, Suite 201

Arlington Heights, IL 60005

For further information, contact Tim Hodson

at 847.391.1000 or thodson@sgcmail.com.

CALLINGALL

INTERNS

cultuRe connectionCrop Culture report

in the plug stages, and during transplant-finish at 2,500-5,000 ppm. Bonzi sprays (paclobutrazol) at 5-10 ppm may also be utilized, however it is not rec-ommended to drench PGRs. Moisture management may also be used to keep plants in check. Water up to level 3 (media appears dark brown) and dry down to level 2 (media is tan). Some foliage flagging is ok, but do not allow to wilt as celosia can be susceptible to high salt levels resulting in edge burn.

industry RecognitionCelosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’ has received an enormous

amount of attention since its introduction at California Spring Trials in April 2015. But even before that, those industry growers and buyers that viewed ‘Dragon’s Breath’ in trial gardens across the country could not help but stop and rave over the plant’s deep red foliage and large flower plumes that seemed to never stop blooming. It’s no wonder then that ‘Dragon’s Breath’ won the Industry Choice Award at Cultivate ’15 this summer. Whether ‘Dragon’s Breath’ is placed in con-tainers, the landscape or on the consumer’s deck, that vibrant maroon, deep-red foliage, along with its out-standing flowers, will surprise, astound and delight everyone. g

Ken Harr is product technical manager with Sakata Seed America. He can be reached at kharr@sakata.com.

One of this new celosia’s best attributes is its deep red foliage.