One of world's leading hibiscus breeders introduced their first own-bred dipladenia recently. The company in question is Danish breeder Graff Breeding A/S. After receiving many requests for dipladenias from their HibisQs growers, who do both, Graff Breeding A/S started breeding 8 years ago. After testing the varieties all over the world, they showed the first Q-deville dipladenias at the IPM Essen in January 2019 and they will again be on display at the open house of VIRIDALIA in Barcelona, Spain, at the trial station of Plantinova from 5th to 7th of June.
Helle Graff and Nethe Stensgaard presenting the Q-deville® dipladenias at the IPM Essen 2019.
How to differentiate from the other dipladenias on the market?
There are a lot of good and well established dipladenia breeders around, so how to compete with the other dipladenias on the market? "As there are already many good varieties on the market, we tried to go a different direction. Our target is to breed compact types, which you can almost grow - labor wise - like hydrangeas. In turn, this will decrease labor costs for the grower and create an even better garden plant."
Besides the growing habit of the plant, shelf life is another major focus to them. "Shelf life is one of the main priorities of our breeding in general. The flowers of our HibisQs varieties, for example, last from 2-6 days. For the dipladenia varieties, the shelf life differs between the varieties grown in a greenhouse here in Denmark or outside in the Mediterranean areas, but in general, our growers told us that the flowering last longer and bloom more rich than other genetics they've grown / tested."
Two varieties from the Q-deville® dipladenias series.
Breeding and trialing
Eight years ago, Graff Breeding started breeding dipladenias. “Time-wise, the hibiscus and dipladenia work well together and many growers therefore do both. After receiving many requests for dipladenias from our HibisQs growers, we decided to start our dipladenia breeding.” Over these 8 years, Graff Breeding has been breeding and trialing the different varieties all over the world. "Right now, we have trial locations in 4 continents, in 9 different countries with different climate zones." In order to check the varieties, Graff Breeding travels around to check how they behave. "Are they compact? Is the shelf life the same as here in Denmark? And so on."
Supply all over the world
The Graff's breeding dipladenia mother stock is based in Uganda and Vietnam and from there, they can supply growers from all over the world. “We are still in the testing and small scale phase, but we are continuously working on increasing the number of mother plants to meet the demand”, Helle Graff says.
Next step?
Their Q-deville series currently consists of 11 varieties and the next step is showing these varieties to the world. "At the IPM Essen, we already gave a preview of the plants, now we have them all ready and we will show them at VIRIDALIA by Plantinova, our test location in Spain. From June 5-7, Plantinova is holding an open house during VIRIDALIA where we will present our HibisQs and dipladenias too."
For more information
Graff Kristensen A/S
Helle Graff
Email: hg@graff.dk
www.graff-breeding.com