White Flame Salvia Cultivar Breeding for Vigorous Growth

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing Salvia cultivars lack a combination of vigorous, upright growth habit and long-lasting inflorescences with white-colored flowers, which are desirable for improved garden performance.

Innovation Solution

The development of a new Salvia hybrid cultivar, 'White Flame', characterized by white-colored flowers, dark green foliage, and a vigorous, upright growth habit, achieved through open-pollination and asexual reproduction, resulting in plants that are taller and wider than the female parent, with inflorescences that often curve with age and smaller corollas compared to 'Balsalmispim'.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If existing Salvia cultivars are used, then they have established growth patterns, but they lack the combination of vigorous upright growth habit and long-lasting white inflorescences

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvegarden performanceVSAvoidbreeding complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple desirable traits (vigorous upright growth habit, long-lasting inflorescences, white flower color) into a single new cultivar 'White Flame' through controlled open-pollination breeding, merging previously separate characteristics into one improved variety

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The breeding program selectively changed key parameters including plant height (taller than parent), inflorescence duration (longer-lasting), and flower color (white), creating a cultivar with optimized characteristics for garden performance

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Productivity

If the new cultivar is bred to be taller and wider than the female parent, then growth vigor is improved, but plant size increases beyond the parent's dimensions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvegrowth vigorVSAvoidplant height

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLength of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The breeding program intentionally changed the height parameter to produce a taller plant (approximately 48 cm vs. parent's shorter height) with improved vigor, accepting the size increase as a beneficial trait for garden performance

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Duration of action of stationary object

If inflorescences are made to curve with age like 'Balsalmispim', then longevity is improved, but the new cultivar develops its own curving pattern

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinflorescence longevityVSAvoidinflorescence form

Core Design Contradiction:

Duration of action of stationary objectVSShape

Solution Approach 1:

The patent preserves the beneficial local quality of inflorescence longevity (long-lasting flowers) while allowing the specific curving shape to differ from comparable cultivars, maintaining the essential functional trait while accepting natural morphological variation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUSPP32429P2<i>Salvia </i>plant named ‘White Flame’

Publication Date: 2020.11.03 BALL HORTICULTURAL CO

AI summary

A new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant named ‘White Flame’, characterized by its white-colored flowers, dark green-colored foliage, and vigorous, upright growth habit, is disclosed.