Trial: Annual

Years Trialed: 2003

Good Qualities

Excellent clear color (7); No rust (2); Earlier than ‘Rocket’, tall, good for cuttings; Prolific, kept going all summer, no caterpillars (great); Strong stems, produced all season; Great for wedding work, good stem strength; I love the color – especially mixed with white and plum purple glads, it is unusual and soft, maybe mauve rather than lavender, long bloom season, still going strong on 10/24 in Zone 7; Good stems; Fairly strong, upright stems, bloomed over a long period of time, no particular insect problems.

Problems

Color not particularly striking, somewhat washed out (3); Consumer did not buy it when it was in a bunch of itself, only in mixed bouquets; Slow to rebloom; Need to use netting, which I didn’t get around to; Florets drop off when handling; Rust, which usually come with later plantings here in Santa Cruz; Longer stems would have been nice but we had a droughty summer.

Comments

Did not harvest due too short/poor quality flower; Would love it in a pinker color; Did not appear as anything special as compared to the current ‘Rocket’ series; This crop was pinched prior to tp into the field, we were able to harvest for approximately 5 weeks, and they just kept on coming back very well; I’ve waffled on this all season, the color just doesn’t stand out enough to get excited about; An unusual color – lavender/mauve, not always easy to mix with other flowers, not a color customers typically have in their homes, we used one tier of support net, two would have been better.

Trial Data

¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.

Supplier

PanAmerican Seed P.O. Box 438 West Chicago, IL 60186