Monrovia expands new plants team

Monrovia’s New Plants program team is growing. This expansion allows Monrovia to trial and test more plant material and bring more new plants into the market. 

Photo courtesy of Monrovia

Fela Lafi has taken on the role of new plant trials manager. She joins the plant hunting team and will manage plant trials at all Monrovia nurseries, work with data collection and explore new plant testing opportunities with breeders. Lafi joined Monrovia in 2022 as an intern while studying horticulture at Oregon State University. During that internship, she was hired as a propagation team leader and was promoted to assistant buyer of green goods.

"Premier Introductions, Inc. (PII) is proud to collaborate with Monrovia Nursery in trialing and evaluating new introductions,” said Michael Dirr, PII Founder. “Monrovia's multiple locations provide extensive geographical performance data. The trials manager, Fela Lafi, shares photos and text, one of the few licensees to do so. This information is critical to assessing adaptability, propagation, production and consumer acceptance. Further, it allows PII to adjust breeding strategies to improve plants that fall short of expectations.”

Photo courtesy of Monrovia

Georgia Clay is now the plant selections manager. In this new role, Clay will be focusing on new plant choices, bringing selections to market, managing intellectual property and developing breeder relationships. She will also continue her consumer outreach, participating in Monrovia’s webinars and plant care videos. Clay joined Monrovia in 2019 and has been an integral part of the company’s plant hunter team.

“We appreciate the time and effort Monrovia puts into our partnership,” said Mark Griffith, Premier Introductions. “Georgia, Fela, and Jonathan are the best at maintaining records, providing feedback and sending photos of our trial plants. Evaluating the plants in locations throughout the country provides invaluable information. Trialing of woody ornamentals is not a short-term project, as it often requires multiple years to evaluate.”

“Bringing new plants to market is a big undertaking,” said Jonathan Pedersen, president and CEO at Monrovia. “Adding to our team will allow us to evaluate more plant material, and ultimately bring more exciting new varieties to our garden center customers.”

Clay and Lafi have coordinated on the selection of many of the new 2024 plant introductions. They are also working with several breeders around the world to bring new plants in to trial next year.