History of Surfinia®

Meet our revolution!

We are happy to share some of our most recent innovations with you. Meet the next generation of Surfinia®. They are exceptionally early trailing Surfinia’s, they are even better, stronger and bolder than the classics. They flower earlier in the season and therefore last longer! Discover our 4 upcoming varieties. Which one is your favourite?

“Surfinia® Trailing Light Yellow and Surfinia® Trailing Violet aren’t available in stores yet.” Did you know it can take up to 4 years to get a new variety retail ready? Want to know more about flower labs, the breeding process, market chain and Innovations? Go to: www.surfinia-official.com/breeding

Once upon a time

Perhaps you are familiar with the Japanese firm Suntory; they are famous for their spirits (Jim Beam, ROKU, etc.), beers, wines and soda brands (Schweppes, Orangina etc.). But did you also know they are a big player in the flower industry?

In 1987 they bred the first petunia from cuttings. The Dutch company MNP, which was called Moerheim New Plant at the time, immediately recognized an opportunity for success: petunia’s from cuttings were easier to multiply and , grow an of superior quality. Moreover, it eliminated the quality uncertainty of seeds. They made petunia great again.

MNP introduced the trailing petunia onto the European flower market, taking notice of the marketing & sales strategy of Suntory’s household brands. They revolutionized the plant industry by building a strong plant brand, which included a visual identity and clear tone of voice for POS materials. The uniqueness and high quality of the product combined with a smart marketing & sales strategy proved to be a recipe for success. In 1990 MNP found the first grower who started with just 800 Surfinia® cuttings and two years later they had sold over a million Surfinia’s!

Simply the best

Now, thirty years have passed and Surfinia® has become its own identity. Surfinia® started a true revolution as many other breeders and growers also started to breed petunia’s from cuttings. And they too, started innovating the plant, creating new brands and various levels of quality.

Many cross-breeding experiments led to new floral shapes, colours and various types of Surfinia®. It all started with the famous Surfinia® Purple in 1990. Soon Surfinia® White, Surfinia® Blue Vein, Surfinia® Pink Vein and Surfinia® Hot Pink followed. The 30 year old Surfinia® Purple is still the best and most sold trailing petunia worldwide.

The birds and the bees

It all started with the classic purple Surfinia®, still one of the most popular petunia colours. Since then, many more colours and even various flowering shapes have been added to the big parade of petunia types. Behind the scenes of the flower industry many scientists, breeders and growers are still working hard to improve the Surfinia® even more.

New species of plants are created by crossbreeding existing plants of different shapes, colours and flowering habits. In nature, bees and other small insects help procreate plants by carrying male pollen when flying from flower to flower in their search for nectar. As a result, they pollinate the female pistil, which contains egg cells. Together, the pollen and egg cells can develop into seeds. These seeds will usually grow to be new plants of the same species but in some rare cases, a new crossbred is created.

In the commercial world, scientists take ‘nature’ into their own hands as they play bee and pollinate plants by hand. This task requires a lot of patience, accuracy and attention to detail. New Surfinia® varieties that are introduced onto the European market are always bred with a lot of love and respect for nature’s way.

Grown from cuttings

When crossbreeding plants, it’s always uncertain what theresult will be. For example, cross-breeding an orange andpink flower may result in orange flowers, pink flowers ora new colour. And even if the result is successful, anotherchallenge arises: getting the new type stable. It’s hard togrow a stable plant type from seeds as every seed may leadto an unexpected or even unwanted result. Therefore, manygrowers use cuttings. A cutting is a clean part of the root orstem that can, when relocated, keep growing on its ownand become an independent plant. One of the reasons thatSurfinia’s are grown from cuttings, is because it allows us toguarantee the best quality. It will be of the same quality asthe thoroughly tested and approved mother plant.