Johnny's Flower Product Manager Hillary Alger presents Cosmos 'Apricotta'.

We're standing in front of a new Cosmos variety called 'Apricotta'.

One of the things that we really like about it is that for this special apricot color, within this class, they are really tall, vigorous plants. Some of the other apricot-colored varieties that are on the market tend to be on a much smaller plant structure, with smaller flowers. This is a really vigorous variety, which is quite nice.

Also, the color is a really nice complement to 'Rubenza', which we have here. 'Apricotta' has sort of a rose-apricot palette that plays really nicely with the deep and dusty tones of 'Rubenza'.

I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the things we like about this variety, and then some of the challenges. As I mentioned, one of the things we love is that the plants are really tall and vigorous, compared to some of the other apricot colors.

Then I have here, at least a color example of one of the other apricot-colored varieties on the market. And you can see it is also a lovely, delicate apricot color, but the blooms are quite a bit smaller, and the plants are also quite a bit smaller.

And then I have here 'Apricotta' in this hand, and one of the things we love are some of these beautiful apricot tones. But also, some of the challenges of this variety can be that not all the blooms are as completely full as full and big as we'd like to see. But that special color and the productivity of the plants make it worthwhile.

There is also a little bit of variation in the color expression in this variety. Some of these are really pale beautiful apricot. Others lean a little bit more into a darker terracotta, and then there are some that are a lot of rose with just hints of apricot.

That's this variety:

• really productive beautiful colors
• but a little bit inconsistent in terms of bloom shape and bloom color
• but still, quite lovely!