Bold Colours get the Industry Vote!

The Blue Flag results demonstrated some great new favourites at this year’s Summer Open Days

“What Summer?” you may ask. But for those who ventured out into the garden and bedded out their annuals, planted up baskets, window boxes and patio containers were reassured of the incredible resilience of modern bedding plants.

At our West Adderbury Trial Grounds many varieties excelled in these testing conditions, including Begonia, Dianthus, Fuchsia, Marigold, New Guinea Impatiens, Phlox and Zinnia.

A few new shining stars certainly stood out in the eyes of our 2000 visitors as they voted for their favourite with a Blue flag. Here are some of those stars...

New Calibrachoa Cabaret Bright Red and Deep Yellow
Calibrachoa x hybrid

Top votes overall went to these two punchy new colours adding to the popular Cabaret TM series. Bright Red boasts the best fire engine red colour and habit to match the series whilst Deep Yellow expands the series with a bold, non-fading colour that’s unique to the market.

The series now extends to 12 dynamic colours, all well matched to one another for flower size and plant habit. The Cabaret TM series produces a mounded, trailing plant which becomes loaded with bright fresh flowers right through the Summer until mid September. Unlike many other Calibrachoa, Cabaret is very tolerant of cool temperatures and its foliage remains dark green even when watered with ‘hard’ alkaline water (something Calibrachoa usually detest).

Trade info: Available as a Ball 84 ‘ready pinched’ plug, weeks 6 - 20. A large 10cm (4”) Ball label is available to make your plants stand out on the retail bench. 


NEW Begonia Whopper series
Begonia x semperflorens

This new king-sized semperfloren hybrid variety out performs all other semperfloren Begonia with its outstanding vigour, early and large 7cm flowers, coupled with an unsurpassed performance in flower beds and large containers.

In this year’s Summer Trials at West Adderbury, Whopper grew twice as fast as the most comparable vigorous type (Begonia ‘Big’). Throughout the unusually wet and cold season Whopper grew and filled fast. In our previous years trials Whopper exhibited excellent heat and sun tolerance. This will certainly be a welcome introduction for the home garden and a ‘must have’ plant for mass planting schemes with Parks and Local Authorities. Plant height 85cm and spread 55cm.

Trade: Available as both seed and a Ball 84 plug, weeks 8 – 18. Perfect for premium pack and pot bedding sales as well as larger pots for instant late season patio colour sales. A large 10cm (4”) Ball label is available to make your plants stand out on the retail bench.

NEW Dianthus F1 Sweet Purple White Bicolour
Dianthus barbatus


This is the first bicolour to add to this multi-purpose series of Sweet William, and a striking new colour at that.

Sweet is an easy-to-grow, high quality Dianthus for professional cut flower programmes, home-cut use, patio gardening and landscape planting schemes.

Sweet is also a first year flowering variety, so can be sown and flowered in as little as 15 weeks from sowing without the need for vernalisation.

The large, very fragrant, long-lasting blooms are held above deep green foliage on straight, strong stems which do not need staking. What more can you ask from a flower?

Sweet is available in a range of six colours of which Coral, Scarlet and White already hold RHS Awards of Garden Merit. Garden height is approximately 45cm. Plants grown under cover for cut flower use will reach 90cm.

Trade: Available as seed and as a mixture of all six colours as a Ball 104, weeks 10 – 20. A large 10cm (4”) Ball label is available to make your plants stand out on the retail bench.

Other Favourites:

Geranium Pac® Angel Eyes Bicolour	Geranium Pac® Angel Eyes Burgundy
Begonia Million Kisses® Ellegance	NEW Petunia Pinstripe
NEW Petunia F1 Debonair Black Cherry	NEW Petunia F1 Sophistica Blackberry Sour

NEW Calibrachoa Cabaret Blackberry
NEW Geranium Fantasia Red Heart	NEW Geranium Designer Pink Splash
NEW Antirrhinum Twinny Appleblossom

What is the Blue Flag survey?

The ‘Blue Flag’ survey is a measurable study that identifies sales opportunities right through the supply chain and enables Ball Colegrave customers to determine what varieties are “favourites” as visitors place a blue flag beside their favourite plant. Over 1,200 blue flags were placed this year during trade and public days.

The Ball Colegrave Open Days this year were a great success with an increase in visitors this year. More than 1,000 Nurserymen, Parks Departments and Retailers visited during July and August, to cement their production and promotional plans for the forthcoming year.

Over 50,000 plants were bedded out over eight acres of grounds to demonstrate a diverse range of annual and perennial varieties. Bedding plants were shown in new dimensions, with inspiring vertical bedding displays using the award winning VertiGarden™ planting system. Customers were also afforded the opportunity to preview many of the 300 new varieties for the 2013 season and development work on future introductions.