The fabled Dutch Keukenhof garden, which recently opened its doors for the season, has polled its visitors regarding their favorite strain of gerbera. The initiative for the survey came from the breeders themselves, as an alternative to the inspection that is usually done by VKC, the horticulture sector’s association for registration and judging.
Rather than employing a complicated questionnaire, visitors only had to answer one single question; ‘what gerbera do you like the most’? That joyful flower turned out to be the ‘Marmolada’, a bright, white and red gerbera produced by Dutch breeder Schreurs. In second place came ‘Nuance’ by Florist de Kwakel, while the third place spot was claimed by cultivator Terra Nigra’s ‘Sunspot’.
The apparently somewhat unexpected results caused breeder Willem van Holstein to comment: “The consumer looks for entirely different things than we do. I think he mainly opts for the flowers which stick out. He focuses on a cute color or a nice shape, not whether all the petals are equally well-aligned”.
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