The present invention comprises a new Pelargonium, botanically known as Pelargonium interspecific, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘PEQZ0044’.
‘PEQZ0044’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar ‘PEQZ0044’ has hot rose colored inflorescences held above the medium-green foliage, very heat and drought tolerant with continuous color through the most extreme summer heat, and exceptional edema tolerance on a well-branched plant habit.
‘PEQZ0044’ originates from a hybridization in a controlled breeding program made in September 2012, in a greenhouse in Guatemala. The female parent was an unpatented, proprietary plant of P. interspecific parentage, identified as ‘10521-1’ with lighter rose color florets.
The male parent of ‘PEQZ0044’ was an unpatented, proprietary plant of P. interspecific parentage, identified as ‘10520-1’ with more blue-rose colored florets and a more open plant habit when compared to ‘PEQZ0044’. The resultant seed was sown in August 2007.
‘PEQZ0044’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in March 2014 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘PEQZ0044’ was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were propagated from the initial selection in the spring 2014 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.