Louisiana Super Plants—Three Years of Successful Plant Promotions

The LSU AgCenter, in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), initiated an ornamental plant marketing and promotion program in 2010. This program is called “Louisiana Super Plants”, Funded has been provided via an intial 3-year award via the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s Specialty Crop Competitiveness Block Grant Program. Two subsequent years have now been funded. Plants have been selected for fall and spring promotions since the Fall 2010. Plants selected for Fall 2010 were ‘Shishi Gashira’ camellia, ‘Camelot’ foxglove, and ‘Amazon’ dianthus. Promoted plants in Spring 2011 were ‘Frostproof’ gardenia, ‘Shoal Creek’ vitex, ‘Serena’ angelonia, and ‘Butterfl y’ pentas. Plants to be promoted in the future include: Fall 2011—‘Swan’ columbine, ‘Redbor’ kale, ‘Belinda’s Dream’ rose, Southern sugar maple; Spring 2012—‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome, ‘BabyWing’ begonia, ‘Penny Mac’ hydrangea; and Fall 2012—‘Sorbet’ viola, ‘Conversation Piece’ azalea, and evergreen sweetbay magnolia. Spring and Fall 2013 plants have also been selected with 2014 plants being scheduled for selection shortly. Over 175 green industry businesses in Louisiana and one in Mississippi are actively participating. Plants are promoted as “university tested and industry approved.” The authors meet with a group of nursery, landscape and garden center professionals twice annually to evaluate the program and select new plants. Point of purchase signs are provided complimentary to retail garden center participants. Hang tags and flat tags are provided to growers. Plants are promoted by the LSU AgCenter’s Get It Growing mass media program. The Get It Growing program has weekday radio, weekly television and weekly news article segments. Billboards have been used since spring 2011 in major metropolitan areas around the state—Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, Shreveport, and Alexandria. Growers have reported tripling production for the selected herbaceous plants. Growers have obtained 50% sale increases for woody plants selected. Retailers are very pleased with the program and have reported tremendous sales increases. The program also has print ads in newspapers across the state and in Louisiana Gardener magazine. A website, www.lsuagcenter.com/superplants, also supports the program.

Abstracts:

• Super Plants Logo.jpg (37.7KB) - Abstract Text