2/01-09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: Christine Kelleher, 800-232-9557, Ext. 512, or Gary Doerr, 916-716-1889 Karen Dardick is a garden writer with more than 200 articles published in national and regional magazines and newspapers. She writes a monthly column "Simply Roses" for the Pasadena Star-News. Her own garden contains more than 100 roses, plus perennials and annuals and was featured in a national magazine. Feel free to use this release in its entirety or in part, with or without the author’s byline.

Plant breeders work long and hard to develop new cultivars with characteristics that entice gardening enthusiasts. Bigger, better flowers, improved disease resistance and new colors are just some of the traits hybridizers eagerly seek.

But sometimes new plants find their way into landscapes through a combination of nature and good luck. That is what happened to Mark Leonard, owner of The Flower Mill, a nursery in Loomis, California, specializing in flowering perennials.

One spring day in 1996, Leonard was grooming plants for sale and noticed a strange stem in a pot of Coreopsis rosea. Instead of tossing it, he planted it in a separate container to observe its growth. A graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Leonard is an expert in horticulture, so he realized that he was staring at an unusual plant. He asked around, and no one had seen anything like it. When the young plant bloomed, it produced flowers that were larger and more colorful than its mother plant. He contacted a former college professor to get advice on what to do next and was told about Blooms of Bressingham North America, the U.S. agent of Blooms of Bressingham in Norfolk, England. Founded by renowned plantsmen Alan and Adrian Bloom, the firm is one of the leaders in breeding and introducing flowering perennial plants.

“We are always searching for new varieties through our own new product development program and from other people’s finds,” explained Gary Doerr, president of Blooms of Bressingham North America. “We have an extensive test program where we evaluate new plants, propagate those we think are the finest of their type, and make sure they are free from any diseases before we offer them for sale.”

While Leonard’s new plant was being evaluated at Blooms, other companies were also contacting him.

“Although the people at Blooms had told me to keep this under wraps, somehow word was getting out about this remarkable new Coreopsis and I was being courted by other companies,” Leonard said. “But after I went back to Pennsylvania to see the plants in the Blooms’ test garden, I recognized that Blooms is a class act and I wanted to go with this company.”

Normally it takes five years to thoroughly test a new variety and bring it to market. Coreopsis rosea ‘Sweet Dreams’ is a bit of an exception. Culled from a nursery setting and coddled by horticulturist, Leonard, ‘Sweet Dreams’ was free from disease and easy to propagate. ‘Sweet Dreams’ has large daisy-like flowers up to 1½-inches in diameter, one-third larger than its parent plant. Petals are white with a raspberry color at the petal base, creating a bicolor effect. In bright sunlight, the raspberry color develops further on the petals, creating an appealing and slowly changing color pattern. USDA Hardiness Zones are 4 to 9, and it can grow in containers or landscapes. A somewhat spreading plant, it grows from 18 to 24 inches tall, with a two-foot spread when mature.

“It’s not a temperamental plant and is very drought tolerant with nonstop blooms from June through October,” Leonard said. “It can get a little leggy, but responds well to a light shearing.”

Look for ‘Sweet Dreams’ at nurseries offering Blooms of Bressingham or log on to the Web site at www.bobna.com for more details.

Pictures available