Trial: Annual
Years Trialed: 2002
Good Qualities
Interesting lemon/chocolate color (7); Doubleness fairly uniform - Stiff stem small flower; Flower form - They look a lot better in real life than they do in the pictures - Quite popular with customers; Very different, pollen-free, some branching at top, most held up head, good vase life; Very nice flower, 4-5 inch wide and fluffy center; Strong heads facing upward to the sun; Lots of stems if clipped early; Nice branching, long lasting in the vase; Great flower shape.Problems
Too short (2); Long ray petals, gappy, some upright facing flowers, might sunburn easily, flower may be too large, tips of petals susceptible to botrytis; Variable color; Made us crave chocolate eclairs; Flowers look dirty due to color, not much interest by florists in this variety; Wholesale and retail florists felt it was too different from their normal sunflowers and they thought the flower too soft - Consumers loved the flower; Multi-headed.Trial Data
| Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | Average Spacing (in2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | Retail | Consumer | ||||||
| Average | 2.8 | 25.6 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 70 |
| Range of Responses | 1-12 | 6-48 | 1-4 | 2-5 | 4-5 | 2-5 | 3-5 | 12-144 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
Editor note: See the Postharvest Report in this issue for vase life and handling information. Similar to 'Panache' and 'Lemon Aura'; Semi-double; Sweet cultivars, later plants tended to branch more and be shorter overall; The secondary growth from 6-inch stumps was sporadic and that which did occur had short (5-6 inch), unmarketable stems; Started cutting 8/3 (Zone 5) and continued for the whole month - If I didn't cut out the center bud, I got shorter side branches and not as many at all; Matured in 60 days, very small flowers on short thin stems, 2 2 inch diameter at best.