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.

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.

Supplier

Seedsense Ltd. 7, Bradfield Close North Walsham Norfolk NR28 oHL England