Grower Talk (UK)

Surfinia® impacted the lives of so many and not only consumers fell in love with the bright and bubbly flowers. Many industry colleagues have worked with Surfinia® and dedicated their time to multiply, grow or style Surfinia®. We have asked some of them to tell us about their experience with this iconic plant.

Peter Seabrook, British gardening writer and television broadcaster, Gardening editor, The Sun

Peter Seabrook,

British gardening writer and television broadcaster, Gardening editor, The Sun

The arrival of cuttings raised Surfinia’s 30 years ago wasgreeted with some scepticism by traditional growers, butthe public loved their vigorous, pendula habit andmassed free flowering performance. It took a little timefor people to realise stronger growing plants neededmore space to grow (so needed less plants in any givensize of container), more watering and feeding.

Given this more generous style of cultivation, performanceproved and continues to give outstanding garden decoration,flowering non stop right through the summer and autumn.While arriving in the single purple shade, there is now the fullrange of colours and I look forward to celebrating the Surfinia®30th Anniversary with a display of them at the RoyalHorticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show in May 2020. Afterthe show plants will be grown on in the Floral Fantasia area atthe RHS Hyde Hall Garden for hundreds of thousands ofvisitors to see and enjoy.

Michael Perry, Mr. Plant Geek

Michael Perry

Mr. Plant Geek

Michael Perry, Mr. Plant Geek“For me, Surfinia® defines a whole generation of patio and basket plants. It really set the blueprint for how a ‘branded plant’ could be launched, and it deserves every success! The prospects for such a plant are steered by a combination of factors- marketing and a recognisable name, good point of sale (whether in a retail store or on a paper catalogue page), timing, and most importantly, excellent performance in a consumers garden. Surfinia® ticks all the boxes with a big fat inky pen!

Surfinia® made such a strong brand for itself that it became hard to convince consumers about any other trailing petunia, however beautiful they may have been. It’s the same as someone turning their nose up at an inferior Cola brand when there’s a gleaming can of red Coca-Cola® sitting there in the vending machine! Branding gives confidence at every stage of a consumer’s journey.

Quite often, a plant grown in trials doesn’t translate to easy home growing, however Surfinia® really does! I have grown Surfinia® in trials many times, and they are the most vigorous of any petunia, and require the least encouragement to trail, and the least enhancement to keep looking good. There’s little wonder this beast of a plant is still NUMBER ONE!”

David Spray, Pentland Plants Ltd (UK)

David Spray

Pentland Plants Ltd (UK)

David Spray, Pentland Plants Ltd (UK)It’s rare in our industry that a product is so groundbreaking that the public knows it by its brand name.MNP has achieved this a number of times, but never so dramatically and importantly than with the Surfinia® family of trailing petunias. The introduction of Surfinia’s changed the way we look at trailing plants, and

created a whole new market of basket plants for ourindustry. Imagine our towns and pubs in the summertimewithout their cascades of colour.

Selling a young petunia plant propagated by a cutting wasalien to nurseries 30 years ago, no one could have imaginedhow its success would change production and introducemany new species to our baskets and gardens.

Bringing a new variety to the market can take years ofpainstaking trialling. Many factors can prevent the mostbeautiful looking variety ever getting into our garden,including - failure to root well, produce enough cuttings, orbe susceptible to diseases. The time and dedication ofbreeders is only rewarded when they have finally built upenough healthy stock to launch onto the market. For everycutting that is sold a small licence fee will go back to thebreeder allowing them to continue their creative work. Thissystem has encouraged the industry to continue to strive tomake outstanding new products to delight our customerseach year. While many copycat cultivars have been introducedsince the launch of the Surfinia®, it is still the garden centrecustomer’s first choice. They love the colours, the trailinghabit, but above all they know it will perform wherever theyare planted.

Roland Smith, W. D. Smith & Son (UK)

Roland Smith

W. D. Smith & Son (UK)

It is remarkable that after 30 years the Surfinia® family are stillthe go-to series of trailing petunia’s, still dominating themarket with their outstanding garden performance.

We live in an age where the market is overwhelmed with options for bedding and baskets plants. Where selecting the best varieties for your garden can be a daunting task if you are not in the horticulture business. However, one thing is certain, most customers will know and ask for one variety by name – Surfinia®.

As a nursery and garden centre we are in the unique position of growing plants for sale to various customer types with different needs and by far the most popular basket plant is a Surfinia® and has been for many years now. From home gardeners to commercial properties and Parks & Gardens departments within local authorities. The Surfinia® range still accounts for more than 50% of our annual cutting raised petunia production.

I believe the popularity is down to the knowledge that planting a Surfinia® will provide you with a grand display to be admired by many! A Surfinia® is a reliable choice for summer colour and will keep flowering until the first frosts. If they start to look a little untidy during the season, cut the plant back, add a handful of control release fertiliser and you will be amazed at how quickly they bounce back. You would be surprised how quickly a Surfinia® recovers from our Scottish rain and they are much tougher than the seed raised petunia’s on the market.

I would recommend use in baskets, containers, window boxes and as a ground cover. The plants give a beautiful cascade of colour and with so many striking colours to choose from they can be easily combined with complementary or contrasting colours to add interest to the garden whilst also being able to hold their own in a single coloured basket.

We always look forward to new colours being introduced to the range as do my customers and I am quite sure the popularity will not fade whilst this reliable range fails to let us down with it’s excellent garden and outdoor performance.