A plant information company has updated its library with photos and descriptions of the entrants from The Horticultural Trades Association’s (HTA) Virtual New Plant Awards.

Every year Joy of Plants assists in validating entries for the awards and it has now added 37 new plant entries to its plant database. 

Terri Jones, Managing Director of Joy of Plants in Twyford, explained: “The New Plant Awards are usually one of the highlights of the National Plant Show, held by the HTA in June each year. But due to the coronavirus crisis, the plant show was cancelled, but the HTA decided to run the New Plant Awards as an independent online event.

“The awards are a chance for UK growers and plant suppliers to showcase the new plants they have been cultivating. We were really pleased to support the HTA’s virtual event this year to ensure the opportunity to promote the new plants was not lost.

“The plant entries have been added to our plant library and these can be searched for in our Plant Finder tool for websites and Touchscreen Kiosks, printed as bed cards and uploaded to client web shops. 

“New plants uploaded to our database include Malus domestica ‘Trinity’ from Frank P Matthews, breeder Alex Turner. It’s an innovative early harvesting cooking apple with red flesh and dark red skin that doesn’t need peeling before cooking. It won Best in Show, Gold and Best in the Trees & Conifers Category.”

Other new plants uploaded to the database include Penstemon barbatus var. praecox ‘Pristine Lila Purple’ from Allensmore Nurseries, breeder Dummen Orange, and Anemone ‘Frilly Knickers’ from Fairweather’s Nursery, breeder Hardy’s Cottage Plants, which won the Visitor’s Vote.

Terri added: “These are fabulous new plants for 2020/2021 and we’re already seeing some garden centres making a special display of these plants, to show them off to their customers.

“We are delighted to have added these plants to our library of more than 14,300 UK house and garden plants and trees. Via our platform of tools, we aim to help garden centres, retailers and growers maximise their plant sales in store and online. There will be further updates of other new plants later in 2020.”

Joy of Plants created the Plant Finder plug-in for garden centres’ websites and the Plant Finder Touchscreen Kiosk for plant areas, to ensure customers find plants they want that a garden centre sells and, also to assist staff with providing the right horticultural information.

The company also supplies a Bed Card printing tool and Image & Text Library to help retailers populate their web shops. Joy of Plants has spent the past 25 years photographing and documenting plants to provide information in many forms including Bed Card printing, website plug-ins, Touchscreen Kiosks, and an image and text library for populating e-commerce sites.

For further details about Joy of Plants, please call 07717 532 323, visit www.joyofplants.com, follow the company on Twitter at @JoyofPlants or on LinkedIn via www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-plants.