The breeding and assessment of new clematis cultivars is an exhaustive process that takes ten years from pollination to production.
Each year 2,500 crosses are made resulting in 25,000-35,000 seeds.
Approximately 6-8,000 germinate but 98% of these are likely to be rejected at the first assessment stage.
The selected seedlings then undergo a further 8-10 years of assessment, monitoring and secondary selection.
At any time the pool of plants undergoing these secondary tests represents a quantity of 600 different cultivars.
Final testing is undertaken by growing the plants outdoors in California, Denmark and the UK.
Only 1 or 2 of the 25,000+ seeds are likely to make it past these assessments and be offered for sale.
|
|
|
|
|
One of the 2500 annual controlled crosses being made |
|
|
