About GardenGenetics®
ABOUT GARDENGENETICS®
Wonder where your favorite new plant varieties come from? Chances are good that at least a handful came from the labs and greenhouses of GardenGenetics®.
Rick Grazzini and the GardenGenetics® team are the breeders behind many popular cultivars of Artemisia, basil, Coleus, Dianthus, Lagerstroemia, Lantana, Lavandula, Philadelphus, Rudbeckia, Syringa, and more!
An analytical chemist and plant breeder by training, Rick has created a multi-disciplinary approach to developing high-performing, eye-catching new introductions for the horticultural industry.
TAKE A PEEK UNDER THE LEAF
GardenGenetics® is a commercial plant breeding company that develops new varieties of ornamental, edible, and industrial plants. You will find our varieties in seed or plant catalogs; in your local garden centers and supermarkets; and on the Internet. We license our varieties to the best purveyors of unique plants around the world. We currently do not make any consumer-direct sales.
Currently, there are about 110 new GardenGenetics® vegetatively-propagated plant varieties on the market, most of which are patented, or are patent-applied-for. Plus, we have an additional 150+ varieties heading to market. We’re also evaluating new seed products in very targeted product classes, so stay tuned!
ABOUT RICK GRAZZINI
Rick is a plant fiend who truly gets no greater joy than examining a tray of seedlings and seeing the results of his breeding projects. He’s a geneticist and plant breeder by education, training, and experience and started GardenGenetics® in 2006 with proceeds from the sale of a previous business, an analytical chemistry R&D lab that served the crop protection and pharmaceutical industries.
He finds that it’s more fun to work with plants. Today, in addition to developing new plant varieties through GardenGenetics®, Rick and his colleagues fuse their knowledge of plant breeding, genetics, and chemistry to improve natural products derived from plants, and used in markets such as colorants, dietary supplements, flavors, fragrances, medicinals, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals.
GardenGenetics® is Rick’s fifth startup, and he brings over 35+ years of small business practice and experience to the table with every partnership and relationship. He serves as an adjunct professor at Penn State University, offering seminars on the entrepreneurial life, business startups, contract research in the life sciences, and small business management.
To learn more about Rick, Garden Genetics and his breeding journey, click here to read the Greenhouse Grower magazine cover story.