About Federation Daisies
In New Zealand, Federation Daisies are managed by Trents Nurseries.
For North Island enquires, email here
For South Island enquires, email here
The bold, bright - and simply beautiful Federation Daisies
are the exciting result of the breeding work of NuFlora International,
a long time collaboration between the Plant Breeding Institute
of the University of Sydney and respected Sydney growers, Glenfield
Nursery.
Their brief was to breed and select superior
forms of these marguerite daisies, timeless garden treasures,
with emphasis on compact form, resistance to weather, fading
and disease, clarity of colour, freedom of flowering - and
the ability to "self-clean," a
feature that varies among these new selections.
Just a small part of NuFlora International's Sydney trial grounds |
Plants are bred and selected for their habit
of producing strong basal (=sideways) growth yielding a bush
that's compact and tidy. Little pruning is needed to maintain
shape through the season and the years ahead. Another desirable
characteristic is the plant's ability to "self clean", the production of
new blooms on top of spent flowers so the bush always looks "clean".
Unsightly dead heads are not easily visible. Other desirable
traits include improved disease, harsh-weather and fade resistance,
early flowering with an abundance of flowers that last a long
time.
Not all in the series feature all of these traits,
but one thing we can be sure of is that the selection criteria
is tough and these plants are simply getting better and better.
Culling of plants that do not meet the criteria is rigorous.
Each they plant out around 25,000 seedlings with the expectation
of selecting just a dozen or so for further testing next year.
The programme has received international acclaim. Federation Daisies are
sold by the million throughout Europe and the United States. International
testing sites have been established in California, Atlanta in the eastern
USA, Spain and the UK, as well as in Sydney, the home of the Federation Daisy!
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