Sunbelievable or unbelievable?

280 Posts


How does this work then?
This sunflower from Thompson & Morgan is, apparently, a sterile annual. It won third prize at Chelsea. And you can get one plant for £15, which will presumably look great all summer, die, and then, well, that's it. Fair play, it's a great-looking plant, but this is Greenfingered MoneySaving, and I want more for my money. What do they grow them from, and so, by implication, how might a home gardener propagate them? I'm talking hypothetically, of course, because it's protected by trademark/plant breeders rights, etc, so none of us would ever do this, and also I'm not paying £15 for one in the first place. I simply don't understand how you can have a sterile annual.
This sunflower from Thompson & Morgan is, apparently, a sterile annual. It won third prize at Chelsea. And you can get one plant for £15, which will presumably look great all summer, die, and then, well, that's it. Fair play, it's a great-looking plant, but this is Greenfingered MoneySaving, and I want more for my money. What do they grow them from, and so, by implication, how might a home gardener propagate them? I'm talking hypothetically, of course, because it's protected by trademark/plant breeders rights, etc, so none of us would ever do this, and also I'm not paying £15 for one in the first place. I simply don't understand how you can have a sterile annual.
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If a similar non trademarked sunflower was nearby I wonder if it's seeds would be cross pollinated by BEG? Or is BEG completely sterile?
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/news/2018/chelsea-plant-of-the-year-2018
But, of course, we couldn't do that.....
Unlikely to therefore pollinate another variety, but wonder if another variety could pollinate it?
Why am I in this handcart and where are we going ?
Marketing blurb, and I was going to have issue with the crossing 'the very best with the very best' as there can only be one 'very best' but technically if it's reproduced from cuttings, then the blurb is true - either very clever, or very lazy. Yep it's pedantry Friday for me
Why am I in this handcart and where are we going ?
I've a few favoured tender perennials that literally go back decades. Plants like dahlias also give ample colour in a very wide range and obligingly produce both seeds and tubers. Buy a few good ones and you'll never need to buy them again.
Personally, I'd rather have 3 months of flower or other interest, year, after year, after year, which is why I prefer perennials and shrubs, but each to their own.
The RHS is in a cleft stick here, but it doesn't matter what novelty plants people grow, so long as they focus mainly on the ones that help pollinators.
What was it John Lemon, that famous long-haired gardener from the 60s said? Oh yeah, "Give bees a Chance."
Yep that confused the crap out of me
When I looked at the T&M link my hackles got raised further by one of the photos including a bee, clearly pollinating, then I realised it just doesn't set seed pollinators can pollinate, but nothing further will happen (I think)
You mean The Shamen "Bees Are Good"
Why am I in this handcart and where are we going ?