2023 Dutchess County Fair Plant Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who voted for their favorite new flowers for 2024 at this year’s Dutchess County Fair. We had a record number of votes – 4,657!

Along with your likes and dislikes, we gathered lots of great questions about these varieties and I wanted to take a moment to answer some of them.

First, here’s a look at this year’s top 3 flowers:

Why native plants are not included in our new variety survey:

The plants in the survey are new introductions. A native plant is one that lives or grows naturally in a particular region without direct or indirect human intervention (USDA and US National Arboretum). A plant is considered native if it has occurred naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without human introduction. (The National Wildlife Federation).

Coleus Downtown Greenville

Is coleus deer resistant?

Sadly, no. But deer repellents do work. Mark & I like the ones that contain egg solids.

Bidens Campfire Marshmallow

The Bidens flower variety is pronounced bid-ens . It  is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family and includes 230 species. Bidens was first collected and named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The name Bidens is derived from the Latin bi, two, and dens, teeth, in reference to the pappus awns or collective bristles on the achenes (fruit, seeds). But thanks to hard working breeders, we don’t have to worry about finding seeds stuck to our socks or pants. We can just enjoy the flowers which are a stand out in mixed containers.