“Even in its first year, Selecta One’s Drums Verbena range has been a big hit with growers and demand has far outstripped our expectations,” says Thomas Meise, Head of Product Management. The range currently consists of seven varieties and is now being extended with Drums Red White. “We think this range’s popularity is because the flowers are simple to produce, unaided and with practically no growth inhibitors, so it has everything a modern product requires. They are all early-flowering and compact with high surface area productivity, strong POS performance and excellent consistent flowering for consumers.”
Thomas Meise showing the Drums® Verbena range
“Redefining Verbenas”
The first breeding results for the Drums range were obtained in 2015. In the years that followed, Selecta One continually performed tests to achieve their goals of robust, consistently flowering flowers that are heat tolerant and compact. According to Meise, this has resulted in success. “It's been a fantastic success on the Northern European market, where surface area productivity is the deciding factor in the major growing regions. In more southerly countries, our field sales teams say their customers have responded with enthusiasm, and our North American representatives tell us that Drums is redefining Verbenas.”
The new Drums® Red White
Not a common Verbena
Meise explains that the only thing the Drums range has in common with other Verbenas is the petal shape. “When we think of trailing Verbenas, we normally think of flower umbels comprising four short-stemmed, hardy shoots, easily broken and relatively unsuited to tight packaging and self-service. We tend to think of upright Verbenas as delicate plants that fall all over the place and look like they've been torn. With a dense and firm umbrella-shaped structure, full of short-stemmed buds and petals, Drums creates a totally different look.”
The whole Verbena Drums® range
Reducing growth inhibitors
Over the last few years, one of Selecta’s key aims in selecting new Trixi combinations, which are flower combinations that are trialed to grow well together, has been to reduce the need for growth inhibitors and to do away with pinching as a method of creating compact and beautiful mixes. “The eight Drums Verbenas are perfect for this. Extensive testing has allowed us to identify the varieties that go best together, creating harmonious, attractive compositions for quick sale, while offering the highest production reliability.” Examples include Trixi compact Berry or combined with compact petunias and calibrachoa, such as Trixi compact Red Joy.
Trixi® compact Red Joy
Retail
The Drums range is very suitable for retail, according to Meise. “A dense umbrella-shaped plant in 10.5–13 cm pots with three to five open blossom clusters, five colours presented on one level of a plant trolley or eight colours on a full trolley. Alternatively, three to four colours on one level of an EC and nine to twelve trays on an EC. If retailers stage it correctly, this product will fly off the shelves – Drums is more than just a Verbena.”
For more information:
Selecta One
www.selecta-one.com