Many of you will have visited the big commercial gardens of Graham Phillips , just out of Hamilton .He is one of the biggest Kiwi cutflower growers , a very regular supplier to the big markets in Auckland and Hamilton .He is a second generation yellow fever addict and through his fathers early contacts with Grant Mitsch and the Havens , Graham has been exposed to the red / pink developments for many decades . Graham has made several visits to the U S A and has seen first hand the advances made , importing a range of bright flowers that have impressed him .He is very well known in the markets for his beautiful early season pinks but has also bred some very bright red / pinks .He has been particularly keen to bring this colour forward in the season; they have traditionally been late to very late in our season . Here are a few of his seedlings , again , not all r / pinks but all very attractive flowers . Some of these long pedigrees will show you that he has been at for quite a few seasons .
LUVIT was one of the first that Graham registered .Breeding QUASAR — X — RECITAL . Thanks Malcolm Lind for this photo from the Gisborne National .
M – 20 – 1 RUBY ROMANCE — X — LUVIT , – has good form and three lovely colour zones . An early September flowering time is also useful .
A cross S – 70 , gave Graham a large number of selections . Breeding is Ruby Duby — x — [ { My Word x Arbar sdlg } – x – Precedent x Debutante ] – x – Spaceship – x – Magician . As you can see , a lot of very good colour flowers and some top show flowers of their day .Here are three selections from the cross .
S – 70 – 1 ; form perhaps a little pointed but strong colour .
S – 70 – 2 , more orange pink than red but very interesting colour zoning .
S – 70 – 5 – , , great colour and just over smallcup size .
RUBY DUBY , soon to be registered , ( sdlg H – 6 – 5 ) is one that I have , it is a very well formed and coloured flower but its greatest asset is it,s early flowering time .This is a real step forward ; it flowers here in late August and in some seasons , a lot earlier for Graham . Naturally it has been used a lot for breeding and is the seed parent of the S – 70 series shown .Breeding is — Quasar — x — ( [ Precedent – x – Rosewyn ] -x – Audubon )
Another with intriguing colour zones and good form is H – 10 – 1 , breeding ( Recital – x – Quasar ) — x — B – 18 – 1
In recent seasons Graham has been using a few flowers from Colin Crotty in his R /Pink program , aiming for this sharp colour which sells very well , from the start of the season ( June — July ) until the first week in October finish .
‘Luvit’ — what a great name! And I certainly do!
Thanks for posting all the great photos, John.