Begonia ‘Canary Wings’

Begonia ‘Canary Wings’—a chance discovery led to a huge hit

You, like so many of us, probably handle a large number of plants during the course of your job. You may have seen a sport or a mutation pass under your hands and wondered, “What if…? Could this odd little plant become the next big industry hit?” It would be like capturing lightning in a jar.

That lightning actually struck about 90 miles to our northeast in a garden center outside of Columbus. Back in 2013 ‘Canary Wings’ first appeared in some ‘Dragon Wing’ six-packs as a green-gold stripe on an otherwise normal forest green leaf. At the time the production grower, Jared Hughes, thought the stripe was pretty so he wondered…

Viola ‘Penny Primrose Bicolor’

This spring, if you want to lay down a carpet of color that says buttered popcorn or butter and cream we recommend Viola ‘Penny Primrose Bicolor’. In this case the bicolor in the name refers to the nearly white top petals that sit over bright yellow faces laced with very small kitten whiskers.

Because it is a Viola this variety does three things very well. First, it blooms very early in the spring, usually with or slightly ahead of the Pansies. Second, it shrugs off any unexpected shots of frost, snow, or cold that stumble through March or April.

We get the thickest topcoat of color in all day sun

Third, and our favorite feature, Penny Violas set up a topcoat of color so that the green foliage is well covered. From a distance, ‘Primrose Bicolor’ appears as a moderately dappled pale yellow garden. As we approach it the whites and yellows begin to resolve into their separate patterns of tops and bottoms.

Pennies also grow uniformly, so the carpet won’t have many bumps beyond the natural garden level. Plants have tight branching and resist stretching as the season progresses. Height is about 4 to 6 inches. ‘Penny Primrose Bicolor’ is not a spreader; it grows upright. As a result, we like to plant ours in a diamond pattern about five inches from the center. All day sun produces the thickest coat of color over the top.

Viola ‘Penny Primrose Bicolor’ is available in the 6-inch tray of 6.