Trial: Annual
Years Trialed: 1997Good Qualities
Large, beautiful flowers (5); One of the best we have trialed; Lasted well in vase, customers liked the few I was able to use; Color and large stems; Nice to have an annual campanula; Blooms were sturdier than they looked, looked great even if they got mashed in a sleeve and had a vase life of approximately 2 weeks because all the little buds bloomed out; Everyone loved this flower! I think the blue was the most popular but I sold every stem of both colors. They were a great wedding flower; Germinated well, uniform, great vase life; Very nice flowers-annual blooms first year; Stems were filled with blooms; Easy to germinate, easy to grow.Problems
Did not tolerate summer heat (3); Stems just too short to do anything with. I tried several methods of getting longer stems but nothing worked; Wet spring browned flowers too quickly; Too short of bloom period, cut them back hoping to get another bloom, no such luck, maybe try successive planting; Plants in greenhouse were very vigorous requiring additional layers of netting.Trial Data
| Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 3.8 | 12 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
I enjoyed this plant the most of any new plant I tried this year; I will try this on again in a partial shade environment, mulch it heavily, and see if it will do better (longer stems). I will also grow twice the numbers of blue as of pink but will still have both colors. Additional colors in this series would be wonderful; My customers went wild over these and wanted just bunches on them (I usually put them in mixed bouquets); We had a cool spring and it didn't rain when we were cutting this; The florists we sold to this year are not "adventurous" and did not buy this flower often or regularly.