Breeding Fritillaries
The current selection of cultivated fritillary varieties dates
back centuries; the average age is without any doubt 300 years. The
oldest cultivated varieties date back to the beginning of the
seventeenth century. This indicates that these varieties possess a
certain quality. On top of that, it must be possible to create new
varieties with improved qualities.
The first cross-fertilisation between existing varieties of
fritillaries was created by us in 1979. Our latest acquisition,
Orange Beauty (PBR), was created in 1991 and protected by
breeders rights in 2011. Around 1988 we acquired a set of related
botanical species, which gave the improvement a huge impulse. These
botanical species, related to the fritillary, possess qualities
such as resistance against Fusarium, lack of odour and seedling
vigour; qualities the fritillary lacks.
The improvement is aimed at the development of types suitable
for the cut flower production and for planting in gardens. For the
cut flower production it is of high importance that new species can
be easily forced in the greenhouse in the spring. When setting up
cross-fertilisation programmes the quality concerning the odour
also had a priority; the plants are not supposed to smell too
profusely.
Improvement
This resulted in the introduction of our first new fritillary in
2004: Garland Star (PBR). Garland Star (PBR) is an
orange-red cultivated variety which excels mainly in its firmness
and the large amount of flowers compared to the small size of the
bulb. For the bulb producer it is of great interest that the bulbs
grow well and that Garland Star (PBR) can be easily
reproduced. Nowadays, this new cultivated variety is already being
cultivated by a dozen growers. The variety rights were given to
Garland Star (PBR) in 2005.
Orange Beauty (PBR) got its variety rights in 2011. Orange
Beauty (PBR) has orange-red flowers and is both an asset to
the garden plants as it is suitable for forcing. Orange
Beauty (PBR) has a less strong odour because one of the
parents is odorless and is thereformore suitible as a
cut-flower.
