Trial: Annual

Year Trialed: 2008

Good Qualities

Great color (3); Strong stems (3); Double flowers (2): Attractive double flowers with ruffled edges, tallest variety in trial; Nice flower form, moderate buds, better stem strength that the other Arena varieties; Many buds/stem, most of all lisianthus cultivars, tallest plants and produced most stems/plant among all lisianthus; Very tall; Easy to grow, didn’t require netting in the field.

Problems

Too late for this location: 24 days later than ‘Echo Champagne’, low yield; Occasional flower stem droop; Blooming lags behind rest of Arena series, one week after first cut of the rest of Arena, it's still not blooming; The seed came late (February) and although I started it right away, the plants in the field never got to maturity, we had a very cold/late spring (up to 6 weeks lost) and this did not work in their favor, also, in the future I will only grow lisianthus in the hoop, western Washington is just too cool to attempt them in the field, wish I would have known! I worked so hard to get a crop and really wanted to see all of these beauties in full bloom, bummer!!!; Long time to harvest from sowing (Feb-mid-Aug.) (Zone 5).

Similar Cultivars

‘Magic Rose’.

Comments

‘Arena Rose’ performed best of the Arena varieties; Didn't stand up to our windy/breezy conditions, bloomed much later than other lisianthus, late August came before prolific blooming started; Best of all the lisianthus we had this year.

Postharvest

We only used plain water.

Supplier

American Takii 301 Natividad Rd. Salinas, CA 93906