Started two years ago by a group of cutting raised ornamental plant breeders and suppliers, the week 24 Flower Trials are fast becoming a major event with close to 20 participants looking to promote their existing products and new releases to growers and distributors.
The emphasis of these trials are on cutting raised varieties for pot plants and bedding, and they are timed to be six weeks later than the seed company pack trials which are in week 18, with the intention of getting more grower visitors through the door, as they tend to be too busy to leave their nurseries for the earlier trials.
This seems to be working and some of the major seed breeders have now also either moved completely to this later date or are doing both trials because they feel that displaying their products in week 18 is better timing for their for distributor customers to see the material, especially at a time when they are still putting together their catalogues for the next season.
The event is well run and well promoted with everyone getting together to send out joint invitations to customers and also has its own website at www.flowertrials.nl. It must only be a matter of time before all the seed breeders move to this date as well.
There was a tremendous range of varieties on display and far more new introductions than we could ever cover here, so this is round up of some of the trial highlights.
Westland Areas
Florensis
A distributor of seed and young plants, Florensis also does some of its own breeding. Its trials were extensive, including an outdoor perennial trial area where all its new perennial releases are thoroughly tested. Indoor and outdoor garden style displays and marketing displays were all particularly well presented. The new compact Lavender Elegance purple was a major feature of the trial and was shown as it could be sold in the garden centre in a range of sizes from 9cm pot to larger containers, as was the spreading Petunia Forest Fire. The new spreading compact verbena Versace Purple looked good in a container and is also well suited to use in a hanging basket or as ground cover.
Combifleur
Combifleur is a grower and distributor of seeds and young plants from other breeders. Pot grown sunflowers were prominent in its display with Choco Sun looking excellent. This variety will flower in 12 weeks from sowing in 10cm pots and continues to branch and flower throughout the summer either in the garden or in containers. Sunsation was similar in habit and size but had a darker centre to the flower. Three other seed companies also displayed material at the Combifleur site. Takii had a small selection of new introductions but had focused mainly on the launch of its Opera series of trailing petunias, which had been transformed since the first colours were shown about three years ago.
They were truly trailing and very floriferous and are now serious competition for other seed raised varieties on the market and cutting raised varieties too. The series is available in eight colours, one of which - the Pink Morn - is an All American Selection award winner 2007. HemGenetics was heavily promoting its Dianthus Chiba Series, which are very early flowering compact plants aimed at high density 10cm pot production. Three new colours - White, Scarlet and Strawberry - had been added to take the series up to 12 colours.
Floranova - best known for its seed breeding - was also there with a small selection of its cutting raised varieties. Pelargoniun Regalis Mixed look particularly good and it also had a very promising unnamed experimental semi double geranium on display, which is one to look out for in the future.
Beekenakamp
Beekenkamp is also a grower and distributor of young plants from other breeders supplying a wide range of varieties. Its innovative ‘Well Life’ marketing programme was impressive, featuring different ranges of plants put together in mixed packs for the retailer. The ‘Well life’ fern house plants selection contained six different ferns for use as pot plants, but more interesting was the ‘Well Life’ scented, relaxing and restful herb selection. Perennials is a now a growth area for them and alongside some new material they showed how existing varieties can be marketed in new ways using different containers and styles of presentation.
S&G
Breeding in both seed raised and cutting raised products, S&G had a number of new releases on display. A seed raised introduction, the Begonia Volumia series, was introduced in five colours. These were bulky, sturdy plants with very large flowers with good weather resistance, so ideal for mass bedding schemes. Equally so was the new trailing series of Petunia Pendula, released in seven colours and aimed for use in containers, hanging baskets and as ground cover. New cutting raised introductions included two very attractive Bicolour flowered additions to the already well established Impatiens Spellbound series, Pink Butterfly and Pink with Eye, and a Cobalt blue and White Eye in the Petunia Sanguna series.
Fides
Out of all the material on display two major species dominated the Fides trials, New Guinea Impatiens and Chrysanthemums. There were some amazing colours in the New Guineas but one of the most striking was the new introduction Tamarinda Purple bicolour, with flowers 5-7cm in diameter. There was a vast diversity of flower types and colours in the pot chrysanthemums, but particularly striking is the spoon flowered type Hollywood.
Selecta
Selecta held its trials in a floating glasshouse next to the flower auctions. Its compact Double Dianthus series ‘Super trouper’ had four new colours added to it, and the Violet Oscar looked particularly good. The small flowered spreading Mini Famous petunia series saw the addition of an interesting Peach colour.
Goldsmith
A major new release for Goldsmith this year was the verbena Tuscany series. Available in six colours and a mix, this is bred to compete with the market leading varieties Obsession and Quartz. It is naturally compact and well branched, uniform in flowering time between the colours, covered in flower and tolerates hot dry conditions very well.
Although not aimed at the UK market, Goldsmith was particularly excited about its new Vinca Cora series. It is a vigorous large flowered variety with glossy foliage, but its key selling point is its resistance to Phytophthora which affects Vinca badly in hotter, more humid climates.
Benary
It was Benary’s first time participating in these trials and its seed raised early flowering Semperforens begonias, the dark foliage Night life and green foliage Sprint, looked impressive displayed in large blocks.
Benary also breed a range of perennials and the compact Delphinium Summer series looked promising with the addition of a new light pink called Summer Nights, all flowering at about 25cm. This series is ideal for 10cm pot production.
Fischer
Lantana was a significant introduction for Fischer this year with the four new colours - pink, red, orange and cherry sunrise - being introduced to bulk up the existing two colours to a series of six. A very compact small flower version of Bidens Mexican gold looked good for containers and baskets, where some varieties can be a little too vigorous. A whole new series of Ostespermum, called Sirroco, looked compact and floriferous in four colours. This has been specifically bred for high volume, tightly spaced mass production.
Kieft
The Kieft range is predominately seed raised varieties. Among the main items on display, its Colour Grass collection stood out. This is a range of perennial grasses that can all be plug sown at the same time and are programmable for year round production. A similar principle to its already established Prime perennial collection. New breeding in Laurentia, the Tristar series, was also being well promoted and Kieft plans to add new colours, with a Sky blue already in the pipeline for 2008. Kieft is also the breeder of Helianthus Choco Sun, and this was presented in an impressive raised display.
Aalsmare Area
Ball
Ball was displaying material in conjunction with it German distribution partner, Dummen.Both companies had produced comprehensive and imaginative displays of their material in different settings with lots of planting and marketing ideas. Impatiens Desire is a series aimed at the larger grower and plug producer. This is put together from their existing ranges by selecting out the most uniform top selling colours that all flower in a four to six day window, and all give 95 percent plus seedling yield potential. A whole new series of Wave petunia was also heavily promoted. Similar to Easy Wave in habit, the new Shock Wave is smaller flowered, is the earliest trailing petunia to flower, and all the colours flower within four to six days of each other. The most striking introduction in the Dummen section of the trial was the compact mound forming Sweetunia Exteme Yellow, an intense yellow in colour and absolutely packed full of flower.
Agrexco
Agrexco is the marketing arm of a group of Israeli growers who sell their material worldwide under the brand Name Carmel. They specialise in maintaining stock plants of other breeders’ material and producing unrooted cuttings in Israel and shipping under temperature controlled conditions to growers worldwide. The new trailing bicolour flowered Lobelia Hot Tiger looked good and trailing Scavola Topa Pink will no doubt be a popular item.
Moerheim
Moerheim is the European distributor for Suntory, probably best known for its Surfinia petunia that it now has in a variety of different classes. Described as table types, the Surfinia Table series saw the most new introductions with a Dark Red, Salmon Red, White and Yellow added this year. All are small flowered, compact, very dense branching, spreading and make an ideal container plant.
Sakata
The Sakata display was possibly the most impressive of the whole trial circuit in terms of its location and various different forms of display used. Sunpatiens, its vigorous grow- anywhere, cutting raised impatiens series, been a great success for the firm and a new Salmon with variegated foliage has been added to it. Star of the show in the new Petunias was the trailing bicolour Raspberry Blast, which seemed to catch the eye of most visitors. Again, marketing themes were in evidence with Sakata displaying product groups such as ‘Sun Lovers’ and ‘Best Landscapers’ in garden settings.
Danziger/ Royal van Zanten
In the Van Zanten trials Pot Chrysanthemum Rosanna was a complete ball of flower in the pot, and double begonia Bon Bon, bred for use as 12-15cm pot plant, was performing particularly well. A new perennial introduction was Dianthus Kahori, which was heavily scented and can be used in the garden, containers or balcony. On the same site Danziger had a new series of Bacopas for introduction in 2007, the best of which was Great Blue Lake, with two more to follow in 2008 in the Great Pink shades.
The broad leaved trailing Verbena Donalena had the addition of six new colours, the best of which was the Purple Velvet.
Florema
Florema is a young plant grower and distributor of other breeders’ products. Yellow Hibiscus Cassiopia had absolutely huge flowers up to 12cm across, and had been grown as a standard. A slightly unusual, strange experimental compact star shaped flower was on display which could have potential for the future. Begonia Double Fireball also looked like a must-have line for containers and baskets.
mKoppe
mKoppe is a specialist cutting raised begonia breeder with the elatior pot plant types being the most important species for them. Cevaca, an unusual anemone flowered type, looked very interesting, and the compact Betulia series of single flowered varieties was said to have very good weather resistance for the garden and containers. There were some amazing experimental lines on display as well in particular as a double rose.
Kooij & Zonen
Dianthus specialist Kooij & Zonen are producers of the Sunflor brand dianthus. Finesse, a double flower compact variety suited to 9cm pot production, was the most appealing new introduction.
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