Brand new flowers open house in Guelph

Now this is cool:

The University of Guelph (in Ontario) is known for its agriculture programs, and apparently you can add botany to that as well.

This Guelph Mercury article outlines some of the new types of flowers developed that the public was recently invited to come check out.

The article touches on a few of the highlights:

"Echinacea in salsa red or hot coral, petunias with tiny blooms that grow in a tidy mound, cosmos with a double bloom — these are a few of the eye-catchers on display at the trial garden open house Tuesday afternoon.

"This 'flash mob bluerific' petunia jumps out at me," said Rodger Tschanz, manager of the trial garden. "It's vigorous and stands up well to the weather. So many petunias have died because of the wet conditions early in the summer.""

It's cool that people keep developing new types of flowers, and the development of more weather-hardy varieties could be a very positive development for florists and hobbyists alike for protection from extreme weather events.

What do you think? Know anyone that's developed their own varieties, and does this sort of development excite you?

Read the rest of the Guelph Mercury article here.