Trial: Annual
Year Trialed: 2006Good Qualities
Great bi-colour (9); Strong stems (4); Clear blue edging on light flowers were favorites of my customers and myself; I would grow it again along with ‘Sidney Lilac’; Nothing unusual; Good stem length; Did very well in the greenhouse, we harvested main stem then had side shoots, sold every stem.
Problems
None of the larkspur was a big seller at my farmers market; Color okay- but kind of mousy, it got lost and ends up being more a filler than focal novelty- color unimportant to me; Hard to germinate seed; Most of the plants were eaten by voles, a handful of plants survived and bloomed; More susceptible to ‘black root rot’ than other larkspurs in the same planting; Should be seeded in fall and very heavily; A bit shorter than the other larkspur varieties we grew; Plants got a lot of mildew mid season/cycle; We have pretty much determined larkspur is not a crop we can grow - we keep trying and using different practices but nothing seems to work; The stems did not mature to any marketable size, it would be necessary for the seeds to be sown in the fall here in my zone 6.Postharvest
Did tend to hold petals upon seed set better than KIS I also planted; Anything in the delphinium family really holds better with an STS treatment. Keeps it from shattering, so it lasts so much longer.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 | 3.2 | 21.9 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 85.8 | 8.1 |
| Range of Responses | 1-12 | 14-38 | 2-4 | 2-5 | 3-4 | 1-5 | 3-5 | 24-168 | 7-12 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
This year was the best year I’ve ever had for growing larkspur, not sure why, but I had so much that I got sick of cutting it and all of it was gorgeous; We sow these in a furrow, 3 across a bed and don’t use any support, all larkspurs looked great this year; Sowed 2/13/06 in 200 cell tray, put in cooler 2 weeks; Because of the delphiniums doing so well, we are adding them to our greenhouse crop plan and also plan to have many more.