UF Graduate Student Develops New Coleus Varieties
University of Florida graduate student Penny Nguyen has developed 13 new varieties of coleus. Two of the varieties have been picked up by Proven Winners and a third variety has recently been picked up by BallFloraPlant. Royal Glissade (TM) and Twist 'n' Twirl (TM) are available in the Proven Winners 2007 catalog.
Nguyen, an environmental horticulture doctorate student, works with Dave Clark, an environmental horticulture associate professor, to traditionally breed coleus plants for desired characteristics. Coleus plants are mainly prized for their bright foliage and not for the flowers.
"Our breeding program focuses on developing new cultivars with two primary characteristics—sun tolerance and late or no flowering," said Nguyen. "The secondary characteristics we focus on include high vigor, high branching and novel colors."
Coleus with these characteristics are highly desirable, but few cultivars are commercially available that provide these. The cultivars that will be marketed nationally by Proven Winners and BallFloraPlant open up a new marketing opportunity to those with sunny yards.
Nguyen began breeding coleus in 2003 when she started as a graduate student. The research began with 15 open-pollinated varieties. For the 2006 crop, approximately 30,000 seedlings were grown and those numbers have now been reduced to 150 cultivars.
All of the cultivars go through a trialing process where they are subjected to high light intensities, high humidity and temperature, drought stress, wind stress, insect damage, competition with weeds and the possibility of diseases.
The plants then go through three selection rounds. Plants are discarded on the basis of low vigor, poor branching, dark or non-novel color, poor rooting, and early flowering.
Nguyen was originally born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was five. Her interest in plants began from spending time with her mom in their gardens. Because her mother was new to the U.S. and didn't speak English, Nguyen spent many afternoons and summers growing food crops with her mom in their backyard. She credits her interest in genetics to a high school science teacher. Nguyen also attended an art magnet school and sees how you can mix arts and science together with plant breeding.
"The reason I like plant breeding so much is because you can mix both science and art together," Nguyen said. "Plant breeding is like creating art masterpieces through the use of tools such as oils, charcoal and pencils—but just with plants instead."
For more information about the environmental horticulture plant breeding program, visit http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu.
