Cut Flowers of the Year
2021 Cut Flowers of the Year
The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, Inc. announces its selections for the 2021 Cut Flowers of the Year.
These varieties are chosen by the ASCFG’s 2,500 members on their ease of culture, productivity, and marketability.
Fresh Cut Flower of the Year
Hellebore Ice N’ Roses series
Plants are crosses between Helleborus x ericsmithii and Helleborus x hybrida, and are strong, long-lived growers. Flower in this series range from a white, pinkish rose to a deep red, and are carried on 24-inch stems. One plant can produce more than a dozen tall, multi-flowered stems!
Woody Cut of the Year
Snowball viburnum
Viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’
Many plants are called “snowball bush,” but Viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’ is the original. It’s easy to see why: in mid to late spring, it bears huge, rounded clusters of pure white flowers that do indeed resemble snowballs. Elegant lobed foliage provides a timeless look equally at home in event work, bridal, retail, and farmstand applications. This deciduous shrub is hardy in USDA Zones 3 to 8, and can grow to about 12 feet.
Bulb Cut Flower of the Year
Ranunculus ‘Cloni™ Hanoi’
This extremely popular cultivar carries very large flowers made of soft, paper-like petals on sturdy, thick stems. The powdery pink blooms make every bride’s blush flower fantasy come true. It’s pretty much the “Queen of the Cloni™”. Because of the cloning techniques used to propagate this variety, corms will produce a very homogeneous flower, with stunning results. Besides that, ‘Hanoi’ is a strong performing variety with a long vase life. Not only a queen—also a workhorse!
Cut Foliage of the Year
False blue indigo
Baptisia x variicolor
‘Twilite Prairieblues’
The blue-green foliage, bicolored violet and yellow blooms, and ornamental seedpods make this variety a multi-purpose cut flower. Plants produce straight, strong stems about four feet tall, and are hardy in Zones 4 to 8. Flowers May through June.