plant named ‘GUARD’

Latin name of the genus and species:x

Variety denomination: ‘GUARD’.

The new cultivar, hereinafter referred to as ‘GUARD’, is the product of a planned breeding progam conducted in Nanjing, China. The seed parent is an unnamed, unpatentedK. Yao & M. B. Deng. The pollen parent is an unnamed, unpatentedThunb. The crossing resulting in the new cultivar ‘Guard’ was made during April of 2014 at a botanic garden in Nanjing, China. The inventors selected the new variety at a botanic garden in Nanjing, China in the October of 2018.

First asexual propagation of ‘GUARD’ by semi-softwood cuttings was made at the same botanic garden in July of 2019. The inventors continued controlled testing and propagation, assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety. At least four generations have been reproduced and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.

The cultivar ‘GUARD’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, day length, and light intensity, without, however, any variance in genotype. The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of ‘GUARD’. These characteristics in combination distinguish ‘GUARD’ as a new and distinctcultivar:

‘GUARD’ differs from the seed parent in the following:

‘GUARD’ differs from the pollen parent in the following:

‘GUARD’ can be compared to the commercial variety of‘HACH1’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 25,475. Plants are similar in most horticultural characteristics, including upright plant habit and a distinct new stem coloration; however, plants of the new variety differ in the following:

‘GUARD’ can be compared to the commercial variety‘DD-21’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 35,806. Plants are similar in most horticultural characteristics; however, plants of the new variety differ in the following:

The photographs were taken using conventional techniques and although colors may appear different from actual colors due to light reflectance it is as accurate as possible by conventional photographic techniques.

In the following description, color references are made to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart 2015 except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used. The following observations and measurements describe ‘GUARD’ plants grown outdoors in Nanjing, China. Temperatures ranged from about 0° C. to 40° C. during the day and −5° C. to 30° C. at night. Plants are approximately 9 years old, and planted in the ground. Measurements and numerical values represent averages of typical plant types.