The Garden Guy makes it his charge to keep up with producers from Texas to New York, keeping my fingers on what is happening regarding hot new flowers and creative recipes for baskets, containers and landscape designs. One of my favorites is Rowe Farms in Jacksonville, Texas.

Rowe Farms always starts off their posts saying, “Feeling Blessed,” which rubs off on their followers fairly quickly. They have a great habit of showing what’s headed out on the trucks, including the destination. It’s kind of like showing a T-bone steak to a hungry cowboy, or the Garden Guy!

A recent post showed what was headed to Houston: A Proven Winners recipe called Prime Time was front and center making my heart race. Prime Time features three award-winning Supertunia petunias: Mini Vista Indigo, Mini Vista Scarlet and Mini Vista Yellow. Those three petunias represent 69 awards so you can imagine this basket will be flying off the shelf at its retail destination in Houston.

The Prime Time recipe is called triadic harmony for its design of colors. This refers to three colors equally distant apart on the artist's color wheel. Another way to look at it would be like three-part harmony in a church ensemble. If you added a fourth color also equally distant, this would create quadratic harmony.

When it comes to choosing flowers for color partnerships, you’ll find it isn’t an exact science if you are doing it yourself. Your garden center inventory may present challenges. This is where closeness may fit perfectly. It will be fun regardless, so you may want to familiarize yourself with the color wheel. Even if you don’t want to create your own, buying the already-perfect basket or container will be rewarding.

Perhaps you think the Prime Time recipe is a little rich or saturated for your color palette. Then you might like what my neighbors Dave and Cynthia did. In a rectangular concrete planter, they used Supertunia Vista Jazzberry, Supertunia Mini Vista Yellow and Augusta Lavender heliotrope to give height to the design. Again, this was a beautiful example of triadic harmony with a different twist.

The Garden Guy created a mix last year again with a three-part harmony that was colorful and a little less flamboyant but not much. I used Supertunia Tiara Blue and Supertunia Mini Vista Yellow petunias, along with Southern Blaze Bright Pink phlox. This phlox is making its debut this spring.

But I also toned down the gaudiness in another container. In this container I used three Supertunia petunias: Tiara Blue, Persimmon and Mini Vista Yellow. I found this combination exciting because Tiara Blue has a pale white starburst throat and the Persimmon has a yellow starburst throat that echoes the Mini Vista Yellow.

Rowe Farms has more designer baskets than you could dream of. One other that left me mesmerized was one called Nightingale. This mix is simply stunning, as it features Supertunia Vista Jazzberry petunia and two Superbells calibrachoas, Dreamsicle and Honeyberry.

By the time you read this, I'll be in the middle of a 15-day period of no freezes in my zone 8 garden. I hope it remains. Regardless I am excited about planting season and hoping to create my own new combinations. I hope you will share your photos and follow me on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration.

____

(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)

©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC