New Uses of Pgrs in Ornamentals: Configure (6-ba) Increases Branching of Herbaceous Perennials

Many herbaceous perennials are poorly branched, slow to fill out the pot, and produce few propagules. Configure (6-BA, Fine Americas, Inc.), labeled for branching of floricultural crops, was evaluated on a variety of perennials. Configure improved the basal branching of Echinacea purpurea ‘Doubledecker’ with a three-fold increase in the number of new shoots per plant at two weeks after treatment. E. purpurea ‘White Swan’ had a better branching habit and was more responsive to Configure. Additional crops tested with 600 ppm Configure were responsive as well. Configure treated Heuchera x ‘Raspberry Ice’ had 60% more basal branches than untreated plants while treated Leucanthemum x ‘Alaska’ showed only a short-term increase in basal branching. Untreated plants of Gaillardia arista ‘Dazzler’ had 23 basal branches at four weeks after treatment and the plants treated with Configure had 153 branches. At eight weeks after treatment, these treated plants had nearly 60% more flowers than the untreated plants. Configure offers a new tool for improving the finished quality and propagation potential of a number of herbaceous perennials.