9
THECOMMERCIAL GREENHOUSEGROWER • MAY 2018
6ARIETIES •
Viola varieties 248, pansies 281. Not only that, but for the
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in23cmbowls. Suchwas the 15th annual MeadowCroft
Viola andPansy Festival. Held inMarch at their garden
centre near Battlesbridge inEssex, the event is the
brainchildof Roland andMichael Smith. It is a landmark
occasion for one of themost economically important of all
ornamental plants producedbyBritishgrowers.
This year saw an important turningback of the clock
in the history of the event. Theplants (hundreds of
thousands of them) for the ninedays of thepromotional
retail festival atMeadowCroft areproducedon the
Smiths’ nearbyGrangeNurseries, writes JohnSutton.
Every year visitors from the trade are invited to see the
standard sized samples of each variety that togethermake
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opportunitywas on the nursery during theweek before
theywere transferred to thedisplay benches of the garden
centre. This practicewas then changed to an invitation to
see them immediately after transfer, in a twodaywindow
before thepublicwas permitted tobuy.
This year it was back to the earlier arrangement.
Breeders, growers and youngplant producerswere able
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wouldbe grownonnurseries everywhere.
Therewere varieties in twelve series of violas, grown four
plants in a 1.0litrepot and almost all sown inweek no.
39 (lateSeptember). By the 7thMarch themajority of the
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assess [OeT MVY JVlV\Y MYeedVTVM ÅV^eYiUN ÅV^eY siae
stem length andgrowth habit.
All themorewidely grown serieswere there, withEndurio,
Deltini andRocky fromSyngenta andSorbet andSorbet
XP fromPanAmericanSeed together accounting for
around a hundred varieties. Their competitorswere there
in full force, too. Thesewere the still quite newAdmire
series fromBenary, Floranova’sBel Viso – also a relative
Ue^JVTeY -lVYal 7V^eY aUd [Oe sTalleY ÅV^eYed-V\Y
:easVUs MYVT;aRii aUd [Oe laYNeY ÅV^eYed aUd la[eY
ÅV^eYiUN.YaUdissiTV MYVT:aRa[a (lsV la[eY ÅV^eYiUN
were the sevenMixmasters designermixes fromFlorensis,
all quite small-leaved andwith a tight growthhabit.
Thesewere not the only designermixes in themain trial,
as therewere also six in theVibrante series fromEarley
Ornamentals, and a further six inVolmary’s Twix range.
In terms of theproportionof the varieties in each series
0ANSY 6IOLA RE6IEW 2018
ViolaBunny Ears fromThompson&Morgan, voted this year’s
top variety byMeadowCroft customers.
EndurioRedFlare fromSyngenta.
