Good Morning

Finally a few pictures from our outdoor Begonia trials, each year we plant out the present commercial range of varieties along with lines which we are trialing as potential new introductions for the future, this year we have planted over 50 patio containers and a number of permanent stone troughs along with a few in the borders.

This gives us a great opportunity to live with the material and see exactly how it performs through the year in all weather conditions.

We have varieties from Dennis' breeding programme and others from Germany and America, most of these are close to becoming commercial.

Later this week we will have the first assessment of seedlings at Dennis' these are at the very early stage and could be 4-5 years away from coming to the market, will up date you on these in a few weeks time, in the meantime enjoy the pictures of our trials in Cheshire.

Welcome

Had a day in Germany this week, it was a bit of a shock coming back to 16c and rain from 32c dry and sunny!

However the Begonias are just loving it, our display garden is looking absolutely fantastic, will get some pic's uploaded soonest, they love the combination of sun and rain, even if we are not so sure!

We work with a partner in the South of Germany, they are a fifth generation Begonia family, we send Dennis' varieties there for additional garden performance testing along with testing for potential disease problems, once through this process the stock plants can be produced.

With Dennis alongside, we viewed all the varieties planted outside both in full sun - remember it was 32c that day and will go upto high 30's and also under a shade area - a few pic's below - this gives us a clear indication of how they perform in these conditions and allied to our outdoor testing here in the UK gives us a good picture of what any variety is capable of.

Lots of material awaiting all types of assessment for future years.

We are also selecting potential new introductions for 2010, new for next year is a partner to Peardrop but more about that later in the year.

Hello

Good Morning All, well summers well and truly here, Begonias are going out thick and fast, ideal to brighten up the patio - try Blue Sky varieties which are extremely tolerant to this sunny weather we are having just now.

Main concentration over the last few weeks and the coming few weeks is Primrose seed, it is all now harvested, (a few pic's below) a good part of which is now cleaned, counted and packed, still a few more to get done!

Sowing is about to start, its hard to think of January/February with the weather as it is, but the sowings over the next four weeks will all flower in the Jan - March time frame.

Later in the year I will update the web site covering the many and varied introductions we have for 2010.