Cosmos polidor mixed free seeds/ Bird Watch: the common linnet
Trials have been an outstanding success, as Peter reveals
“I’ve not seen such flower power in 60 years of growing”
PLANT trials are often mentioned in these columns, and you may wonder about their significance and value to the home gardener. The judging results for the FleuroSelect Rudbeckia 2020 Trial have been ratified, and they confirm 11 new Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merits (AGMs), the hallmark for good garden performance, for this single species.
There were over 80 different cultivars in this trial, opening one’s eyes to the range of flower colours, bloom shapes (from single to semi-double and fully double), heights from nine inches to three feet, and the length of time they were colourful.
We all had something to learn, and for me it was the remarkable improvement to be seen in the new vegetatively propagated cultivars, namely in four series. Rudbeckia hirta ‘Enchanted’ is fully double and four colours. R. h. ‘Flamenco’, again, is four colours, but what colours! The ‘Flamenco True Red’ looks more like a chrysanthemum. R. h. ‘SmileyZ’ has two heights and a wide range of large single-flowered, single colour and bicoloured cultivars. And perhaps biggest and best, there is the current R. h. Sunbeckia Series. Get one plant of the latter, grown well in a large container, and it will be almost a metre wide and carrying flush after flush of huge blooms. I had not seen such vigour and flower power in my 60 years’ experience of growing them from seed. Vegetatively raised kinds cost much more. Jumbo plugs of R. h. ‘Enchanted’ will cost £5 each (T&M), while seedraised R. h. ‘Cappuccino’ (voted the people’s choice) as garden-ready plugs cost under £1 (T&M). The seed-raised AGM winners are still excellent-value ornamentals to grow in flower beds and to cut, and I will certainly be growing some of both this year…