By Dr. Andrea Dohm


Breeding for the global market


Selecta has been breeding cut flowers for more than 50 years. Our cut flowers breeding history started in the 1960s in Stuttgart/Untertürkheim with the development of our first carnation varieties.


their flower color and shape, but also a first evaluation of production and the general plant quality is already made in this early stage. Over a following period of a minimum of three years, all selected seedlings run through an intensive trialing process at different locations. During this period, reliable data on the productivity and flower quality are collected, and an intensive evaluation of the plant health takes place. At the end of this trialing procedure, the breeding team, product management, and the sales team decide together which candidates fulfill the requirements of our customers and the market needs in the best way and therefore shall become assortment varieties. It is always our goal to create varieties that perform well for all involved in the value chain: from cut flower producer to wholesale and from wholesale to retail down to the final consumer.


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t Selecta we want to be sure to provide to our worldwide customers varieties that are perfectly adapted to their respective growing conditions. Therefore Selecta operates trial


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very year more than 100.000 seeds are germinated, and promising


seedlings are selected. The seedlings are mainly selected for


facilities in many different countries and further places promising candidates at customers locations at a very early stage. In order to further improve the selection process, Selecta has set up two new greenhouses for trialing. In our facility in Selecta Kenya the breeding team performs year-round trials on 5.000 m² trial area in a plastic greenhouse. This trial house is also intensively used by the Selecta sales team to promote our varieties to customers. The biggest cut flower producers of Kenya, the companies Oserian, Homegrown, and Finlay, visit our trial house regularly.


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t our breeding station at Klemm + Sohn in Stuttgart, Germany, the carnation trial has been moved to a new greenhouse, which


offers ideal conditions for the selection of heat- tolerant varieties as well as for the selection for cold tolerance. This new investment costs over a half million euros. Some of our Dutch clients are planning to visit our new trial house in August, when the carnation trial will flower. We invite all our customers worldwide to visit our trial houses and to see our varieties growing and flowering.


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