On 2/3/07 06:46, in article
, "Dave Poole"
wrote:

Senetti is a range of Pericallis hybrids raised in Japan (can't
remember the name of the raisers) a few years ago. The florists'
'Cineraria' is a hybrid between Pericallis cruenta and P. lanata and
'Senetti' is a summer-flowering development along similar lines. Its
smaller leaves and prolonged flowering period make it ideal for summer
bedding in the UK provided you can keep the slugs off. I'm pretty
sure that you still have Pericallis lanata growing at the nursery and
it is almost certainly one of the parents.

It sounds familiar and I'll have to see where it's migrated to. At this
time of year things get moved around a lot!

P. lanata is a very attractive plant eventually becoming a sub-shrub,
carrying airy sprays of 2cm. diameter, purple-centred, white flowers
with reddish-purple tips to the petals. It has small greyish
'Cineraria' leaves that have a wooly white indumentum beneath and
seems to flower almost throughout the year. I bought one from Ray
about 8 or 9 years ago and it survived in the garden here for several
years. Personally, I prefer it because it has a delicate elegance
that has been lost in the Senetti range. That said, for summer
bedding purposes Senetti's vivid splashes of colour take some
beating.

There's no doubt the Senetti range has been bred for wow factor and it has
it in spades. It's turning out to be a very popular plant. And we received
2 plants of Rosmarinus Sappho from Olivier Filippi today which he sent in
exchange for cuttings from the Salcombe one. He hasn't told us its growth
habit so I've emailed him for some info on that. It's one of his new ones,
so it's going to be interesting to see how that turns out.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)