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In the past few years there have been several new lines of delphiniums introduced to the market place and it is interesting to reflect upon what drives the need for these new varieties, and what market qualities they may have. The nursery trade in general is driven by “new”. Garden centres like to have something “new” to attract customers. This is in fact what drives their business, so there is the “new” factor. Then there is “improved”. This can be used to describe all manner of attributes and the term “improved” can be extremely subjective, yet valid. There can be improvement in all many areas, from germination, through growing of the plant, to flowering characteristics, regrowth, hardiness; the list may be endless.
Now, gardens centres and plant retail stores really like to sell plants in flower. This is understandable as plants in flower sell best. They also like them as early as possible in the season to secure the first sales and have something “new” in store. Gardeners like to buy plants in flower so they can see exactly what they are buying. This is why stores sell plants in flower.
Nurserymen, the plant producers who sell to garden centres, like to grow plants that germinate well from seed, have a vigorous growth habit and reach saleable size as quickly as possible. This is too understandable. It makes good economic sense. All of the above like to buy as cheaply as possible.
So what then tends to be the direction of “new” and “improved”? Right! There is great pressure to produce delphinium plants that flower quickly from seed, look nice in a pot, have strong colours (to catch the eye) and are a little different to others on offer. In other words, they want delphiniums that do everything really well right up until they are sold. What happens next is, it seems, quite secondary. Sad to say, it often is.
Cold hardiness, disease resistance, second year growth potential, how strongly perennial, stem strength, petal count; all of these attributes tend to get lost in the race for profitability.
Yes, we are working to fill the needs of garden centres and other retail outlets too, one must live, but we also are firmly focussed upon producing strong, reliable, healthy, supremely impressive delphiniums that will out perform and outlive their rivals. Perhaps they will be a little more expensive. Perhaps you will have to buy them as plants or seeds through mail order but for sure, they will be worth it, and you garden will be far better for it!
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