Dave Sutherland - Guildtown:
Amgard Coronet :- Fairly low growing plants with flowers
that took a while to mature and lose the heavy centre. When they
do reach maturity, they are a must for the miniature enthusiast.
Barbarry Bluebird :- Six Plants grown outside suffered
badly weather-wise. I may risk another few grown under cover,
although it looks a bit rough to me.
Sunlight Pastelle :- Latest sport from the Pastelle family,
with some of the Fimbriating habit associated with the others.
Does not carry as many petals as its parent, but has good colour
and will be a useful addition for Multi-Vase work.
Fidalgo Supreme :- Yellow Medium or Large Decorative? It
will not make any difference as it had every fault in the book.
Frank Fraser - Lennoxtown:
Trelyn’s Kiwi :- Pure white with a hint of pink
banding. Robust four foot plants grew well and produced blooms
with tremendous depth when grown at six up. Similar in habit to
its parent Kiwi Gloria but flowered 14 days earlier. A sure fire
banker for the small cactus growers.
Tom Melrose - Pettinain:
Lauren’s and Pim’s Moonlight :- These two
sports from Eastwood Moonlight grew identical to the parent with
me. I grew both of them at eight up and found Lauren’s to
be much paler than its parent but Pim’s was almost indistinguishable.
I found it extremely difficult to tell them apart.
Mascot Maya :- English growers had told me that this was
similar to Charlie Two but with a much finer petal and better
formation. This may have been the case in England but here in
central Scotland it was identical to Charlie Two.
Bill Smith - Johnstone:
Carstone Suntan (medium bronze) I tried this variety
once again this year, it is a good grower but the blooms are too
shallow and low in petal count, not good enough to compete with
established varieties.
Cherwell Goldcrest (small yellow) Extremely low grower
and it will have to be pushed to get anywhere near the small ring
size. I will try this one again in 1999 but this time I will restrict
it to four or five up.
Jomanda (miniature? orange). Every grower I spoke to seemed
to be growing this one, early on the blooms were nearly up to
small. The plants obviously need to be double stopped and grown
plenty up to keep it to a miniature. Very robust grower, flowered
early till the end of the season.
Ruskin Charlotte (medium lilac pink). Another fairly low
grower for a medium. I had some badly formed blooms (i.e.. misshapen
petals) colour may be difficult to match. Hard to judge the potential
of this or any variety for that matter this season. I shall try
it again in 1999.
Andrew Allan Jnr. - Chryston:
Jamie - small semi-cactus, lavender, which makes a
nice colour change. A rampant grower similar in habit to the Chester
family. Blooms tend to be on the small side and so I restricted
this variety to six up and stripped all the side growth from the
plants. Even after doing all that the blooms were still a little
on the small side. I made the mistake of planting them two feet
apart. Will try it again next year at five up and space the plants
at eighteen inches. Early to flower.
Pink Suffusion - small decorative, I grew this one last
year and was impressed so much so that I grew it again this year.
Strong grower similar in characteristics to Ruskin Diane. I grew
it six up and stripped everything else off, blooms attained a
nice size. Sometimes I think small decoratives look horrendous
when pushed to the maximum size. No problems with the centres
(unlike Ruskin Diane). I have thrown out Ruskin and Primrose Diane
and will grow this one and Gateshead Festival instead.
Norbeck Dusky - I tried this one again this year mainly
because of the superb dark red colour of the blooms. Similar to
Jamie in that it is a small flower despite the strong five foot
plants, another one to restrict to five or six blooms to the plant.
I have never seen it on the show bench and thought about throwing
it out. I took a few blooms of this variety along to the Scottish
National for the basket class. I had a few spare Chesters and
three blooms of Dusky, I thought I could manage an entry in the
Sir John Reid Trophy class ... lo and behold I came second. Dave
Sutherland was so impressed with the colour he wants to try it
for himself in 1999. A lot of varieties probably get overlooked
because of the dominance of the “banker varieties”.
Barbarry Bluebird - This was my second year with this variety
and I had the same trouble again which was that the back petals
fell out before the bloom had properly developed. I saw some on
the show bench but they had heavy centres..bye bye bluebird.