XXIIIrd International Eucarpia symposium, Section Ornamentals ...

BREEDING WOODY ORNAMENTALS AT APR,
LISSE
Applied Plant Research in Lisse has a long tradition of breeding ornamental nursery
stock. The breeding of woody plants is characterised by the long generation time of the
plants, which often take 7 years or more to flower for the first time after sowing. Some
recent cultivars were the result of over 20 years of breeding and selection.
Pieris japonica ‘Passion’ is an evergreen shrub, characterised by its cherry red
flowers in upright inflorescences. In 1980 P.j. ‘Cupido’ was crossed with P.j. ‘Valley
Rose’. The F1 had upright inflorescences, but all white flowers. Crossing the F1 with P.j.
‘Valley Valentine’ in 1988 finally resulted in the introduction of ‘Passion’ in 2008.
Female Skimmia japonica s.str. can have nice red berries, but since it is dioecious, it
requires a male pollinator plant. Plants of S. japonica subsp. reevesiana are
monoecious, so self-pollinators do occur in this species. In 1989 several S. japonica
s.str. cultivars were crossed, and their offspring was screened for female plants which
also had functioning anthers. After propagation and tests for cultivation properties, one
monoecious selection will be introduced in 2009 as S. japonica ‘Temptation’. It can self
pollinate to produce berries, but still has the abundant bright red berries and good health
typical of S. japonica s.str.
Hypericum x inodorum is a subshrub that suddenly became very popular for cutting
in the 1990’s. Both the cut branches and the garden plants of this hybrid are very
susceptible to rust (Melampsora hypericorum). We screened many wild accessions of
the hybrid’s parent species H. androsaemum and H. hircinum for rust resistance. We
crossed resistant plants with H. x inodorum ‘Excellent Flair’ in 1995, and in the offspring
we selected a compact rust-resistant plant with an abundance of large berries. It was
introduced in 2004 as H. x inodorum ‘Arcadia’. It is excellent for containers, gardens and
landscaping.
P34
Margareth E.C.M. Hop
Wageningen University and
Research centre, Applied
Plant Research
The Netherlands
margareth.hop@wur.nl
Session Posters 107