Pollen-free Roselily making headway

There is a lot being said about chain-wide collaboration, connecting the links, from seed to consumer, etc. but often this doesn’t progress past brainstorming. A good example of a case where this is succeeding is Roselily, a lily collective in which a distinctive product derived and developed by a breeder finds its way to every corner of the world through a permanent club of propagators and two exporters.

Luke Broersen of Zabo Plant, one of the two Roselily exporters: "The special thing about the Roselily is that it contains no pollen. The Roselily, from De Loof Lily; ‘our’ breeder in Zeeland, is one of the few that are guaranteed pollen-free. In addition, I have noticed that the name Roselily is increasingly taking on a life of its own. A double lily is simply called a double lily by consumers. But the Roselily, also a double lily, is recognized by consumers as Roselily." 

No pollen naturally has advantages for the consumer. It doesn’t cling to clothes or surfaces in the house. And it's also nice for the producer and the market itself. And then there’s, of course, the striking form: "At the fair in Ohio last week someone who visited our booth said: ‘that looks like a rose’. That made it easy to explain why we call this line Roselily. The double shape is also a real eye catcher, people always ask about it and many pictures are taken of it."

They are working hard to develop new varieties. "There are a couple of nice newcomers in the pipeline. First we only had light pink, but now we have darker shades and new colors in the test phase. Or, for example, one with a green heart, or with more fringes. Most of them are still in the testing phase, but I can reveal a couple. The Vanessa, the Samantha and the Aisha have all passed the tests and will soon be brought to market. As seen in the photos all these flowers are 'upfacing’ (standing) and extra compact. The flowers are also larger."