Trial: Annual
Years Trialed: 2006
Good Qualities
Uniform flowering (2); Interesting color (4); Ease of and high germination, transplants well from plugs; Spectacular form, always gets comments from visitors; Fast to bloom; There aren’t any!; Long, straight stems; A great trial, large headed, thick stem - “I can grow celosia cristata” I say with a smile; Good holding in field and good stem length for a crop that is usually very short for us; Nice stem length, popular with florists and a well known flower; It’s a nice celosia and its great in the greenhouse but for the price of the seed, my customers really prefer ‘Chief’ celosia - I would have to charge more for the ‘Bombay’ to make money and compared to the ‘Chief’, its just not as profitable.
Problems
Thick stems (3); Pale color not very attractive (3); Although it grew adjacent to other celosia that did well, this crop started off great but stalled after a few weeks in the rain (June was a very wet month) and never recovered, however, other celosia cultivars growing adjacent did well and produced nice blooms, this plant just stopped, made fat stems terminated by a flower that was an eighth to a sixteenth of and inch wide, certainly not useful even as an oddity; Our summer wasn’t hot enough for any celosias to show their full potential; Started seeds about month earlier before planting in the tunnel that is heated, the greenhouse did not seem too cold for celosia but now I believe this was the problem, causing very short plants and one flower; Crop never grew beyond 5 inches tall- seemed stunted; Field grown - head not very colorful; Looks a little sagged if left in the field too long; Should have netted to prevent stems from falling over.
Similar Cultivars
Other celosia; ‘Bombay Yellow-Gold’.
Comments
It could be the area, wasn’t impressed with this one, flowers didn’t open up and fan out, stayed compact and short!; We had grown the Bombay series in the field in past years and this year we grew them in a hoop house, much longer stems, higher quality flowers, would recommend that growers in the north grow under cover; Are there other colors? the green/yellow color was not the most popular at markets, sold for $2.50 stem at farmers market; These also dried very nicely. Note: This series of celosia was intended for greenhouse production in the Netherlands and apparently does best in uniform, controlled conditions. Hence, there was a broad range in response to the cultivar in the trials, with many growers finding it far too short and a few too tall. Note the comment by one trailer that recommended growing it under cover in the north.
Trial Data
| Plants flowering (%) | Plants dead at end of summer (%) | Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | Retail | Consumer | |||||||
| Average | 0.9 | 19.8 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 113.6 | 9.8 |
| Range of Responses | 0-1 | 7-30 | 3-4 | 3-4 | 2-5 | 1-5 | 3-5 | 36-216 | 7-14 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Supplier
Kieft Seeds P.O. Box 618 Conway, WA 98238
