I featured two new Streptocarpus introductions from Dibleys Nursery here on the RHS New Plants blog last week in the run up to the Chelsea Flower Show, now here at the show I came across another which was a late addition to the display.
‘Lucy' a rich deep magenta pink, plum pink you might say, and has flat flowers which show of their colour. Each flower has a very dark throat and on the boundary between the flared flower and its throat there's a white zone with dark streaks and yellow flashes and is the latest in an impressive line created by Lynne Dibley. She told me how she creates her new varieties.
"I hand pollinate the plants using parents I've chosen with the aim of creating plants with the features I'm looking for," she explained. "I grow several thousand seedlings each year - I've just thrown away a thousand plants this last week. It's important to select only the very best and throw out the rest.
"It's interesting," she said, "that in Europe people are looking for neat and compact plants while in America they like a bigger and blowsier plants. So I have to breed both."
Streptocarpus ‘Lucy' can be ordered at the show and will be available from the Dibleys website soon.