The Summer Trials at Ball Colegrave were probably one of the only Professional Trial Grounds in the UK, or even Europe, opening its doors to its customers this season.
“Trialling is at the heart of everything we do as we believe it is incredibly important for anyone involved in production and retail to see how the up and coming new plant developments perform in real growing and garden conditions,” said Stuart Lowen.
“So, we were delighted to have been able to open our doors and receive so many trade visitors this summer."
The ‘working trials’ this summer focussed on both Annuals and Perennials and provided some great insight into both existing, new and over 1,000 experimental varieties.
As always, Ball Colegrave offers visitors the opportunity to vote for their favourite varieties from any of the trials or displays and are delighted to share these results with you. This year they have presented the results of the top Annual and Perennial varieties separately. There was certainly a significant increase of interest in Perennials this year, demonstrated by 50% of the votes being cast for Perennial varieties.
Customers’ favourite varieties for 2021 – Annuals
NEW Nemesia ‘Lady Lisa’… voted for by visitors as their overall favourite Annual Plant variety
There appears to be an almost insatiable market demand for Nemesia. This is somewhat driven by the incredible advances of breeders to develop outstanding colour breaks such as those in the Lady™ and Sundae series coupled with their reliability for growers in pot production, great retail colour presence and outstanding garden performance in all weathers.
One of 4 outstanding new colour additions for 2021 to the Lady™ series of British bred Nemesia, Lisa remained a clear leader throughout the summer trials.
Its remarkably large, exquisite bicolour flowers have a most unique clean deep colouring, a light scent and is quite different from many other varieties currently on the market. The long flower performance and strong, yet compact and controlled habit makes Lady™ Lisa ideal for 10cm - 1 litre retail pot sales.
Other colours in the Lady™ series include Dawn, Emma and Jane, with additional new colours for 2021; Anne, Kate and Mary.
Garden height and spread 25 – 30cm.
Available from Ball Colegrave as a Ball 84 and Ball 142 plug, delivery weeks 6 - 20. The plugs are ready-pinched and ‘breaking’… perfect to simply pot and sell! A high impact colour Ball label is supplied with the plugs.
Osteospermum ‘Serenity Sunshine Beauty’ and Calibrachoa ‘Can Can® Orange Punch’.
Customers Favourite Varieties for 2021 – Perennials
NEW Rudbeckia Sunbeckia Series...voted for by visitors as their overall favourite Perennial plant variety
This genus was thoroughly trialled at Ball Colegrave this summer, coinciding with extensive trials also carried out across Europe by Fleuroselect, including Floral Fantasia in the grounds of RHS Hyde Hall.
So, we were delighted to discover that it was a Rudbeckia which stole the show for Perennial varieties at our own summer trials this July.
Out of all the Rudbeckia we trialled, the Sunbeckia® series has truly been outstanding, especially considering that just one plug filled a 23cm pot and produced over 50+ flowers in one season!
From the series the most popular variety has been Sophia, a plant with good vigour and large, long-lasting happy yellow flowers with a central green eye.
Other colours in the series available for 2021 include; Alicia, Laura, Luna, Mia, Ophelia & Victoria.
Garden height and spread 45-50cm
Available from Ball Colegrave as a Ball 40 plug, delivery weeks 18 & 20. All plugs are ready-pinched and ‘breaking’… perfect to simply pot into 3 to 5 litre pots and sell in as little as 8 weeks or, bump-up into much larger patio tubs to maximise retail sales opportunities right into autumn.
Agastache Morello and Penstemon Dakota Burgundy.