As the new seed catalogues start to drop on to the doormat, the time is right to take a look at some of the new varieties appearing in the mail order catalogues for the coming season. So the next few posts here will concentrate on new seed introductions.
Thompson and Morgan have a number of interesting newcomers this season, including some from their own flower breeder Charles Valin, and one of his most exciting new varieties is Viola ‘Allspice’.
‘Allspice’ is a prolific trailing viola for baskets and other containers. It comes in five sparkling colours and here’s the exciting thing – each colour has a different scent. T&M called in Suffolk wine expert Chris Heseltine, with forty years experience in the industry, to apply his expert nose to naming accurately the fragrance of each colour and he came up with these descriptions: white – “honeycomb”, yellow – ‘broom and pineapple”, purple with yellow eye – “woodland”, purple and yellow – “exotic” and pale mauve/pale yellow – “green tea and spring flowers”.
Michel Perry, New Product Development Manager at T&M said: “It’s unique in that it brings fragrances in the depths of winter, a quality not often found in hanging basket plants. Each colour has a distinctly different fragrance. We’ve tried our best to give some idea of the scents, but customers may disagree and we’d love to hear about the fragrances detected!"
You can order seeds of Viola ‘Allspice’ from Thompson and Morgan.