Ball Colegrave, a producer of bedding plants to the trade based in West Adderbury, Banbury, holds an open day each year where gardeners can have a good look round and pass judgement on their favourite new plants. Visitors take part in the Blue Flag Test – they place a blue flag beside their favourite plant.
More than 1,200 blue flags were placed this year and the new begonia ‘Sherbet Bon Bon’ (left) topped the polls. This very showy tuberous-rooted begonia has a compact cascading habit, making it extremely suitable for patio baskets, window troughs and vertical planting schemes. It produces an abundance of two-tone yellow and pink blush flowers. The cooler the conditions, the more intense the flower colours become. It’s a ‘no-fuss’ plant, tolerating all weathers, needing little maintenance as its self-cleaning flowers mean there’s no need to deadhead.Fleuroselect is the international trialling organisation for the ornamental plants industry. Trials are held all over the world, and each year the best new introductions in those trials are given a Fleuroselect Gold Medal. This year there were three winners.
Gaillardia x grandiflora ‘Mesa Yellow’ is a first-year flowering perennial that produces an abundance of perfect yellow flowers over a long period.
Physostegia virginiana ‘Crystal Peak White’ fits into the popular, modern range of annual flowering container perennials. It shows outstanding compactness and uniformity and is early to flower.
Sanvitalia speciosa ‘Million Suns’ produces an abundance of perfectly formed, golden yellow flowers. It is compact with excellent basal branching and a longer flowering period - from May to the first frosts.
So let’s hope that these plants do as well in our gardens next year as they have done in the trials.
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Interesting that most of the plants have yellow flowers. Is this is a reflection of our poor summers meaning we need cheering up, or is yellow generally the most popular colour anyway?
ReplyDeleteWell spotted VP! You might be right about the cheering up factor - now that autumn's here I know I need it. The seed companies, though, are releasing lots of other coloured plants for 2010, but it is interesting that yellow has caught the eye of most. The other four plants making up the top five at Ball Colegrave were Coleus 'Redhead', Begonia 'Tuberous Peardrop', Begonia 'Million Kisses Amour' and Zinnia 'Zahara Fire'. So not all yellow - but certainly a lot of begonias.
ReplyDeleteHave just been wandering around their website on the strength of yours and Nigel Colbourn's posts. I've made a mental note to go to the public open evening next year...
ReplyDeleteVP
ReplyDeleteYou won't be disappointed. It's a fabulous place to visit to get ideas - I've been going since the mid-1980s. That's if you like bedding and patio plants!