2013 CIOPORA Chronicle

Plant breeding
About relationships
between growers
and independent
breeders and the
role of agents.
The importance of
communication in breederagent-grower
relationships
by Graham Spencer
I
am well-acquainted with the
world of horticulture. I am
both a qualified marketer and
a grower with 15 years experience
of getting my hands dirty. In the
world of new product development
for garden plants (my specialism),
this combination gives me understanding
of both the desires of the
industry and consumer for new
products, and the possibilities and
limitations of plant breeding.
Quantify your needs
On one hand, growers wish for
products that offer improved visual
appeal and superior growing performance.
On the other hand, plant
breeders are limited by resources,
limits of time and money, and limits
of the gene pool available to them.
At the same time, the end consumer
has a desire for something that is
new, but needs to be assured that it
will provide value to them, either by
giving them pleasure (colour, fragrance)
or by solving a problem (low
maintenance, difficult conditions).
The result is a situation where
breeders supply the best products
that they have to growers who find
that their needs are generally not
being fully met. That assumes that
growers have ever tried to quantify
their needs and desires for new
products. This is something that I
believe few growers have ever done.
How many growers are conducting
organised research into the needs
and desires of their customers? Do
we know what garden centres want
us to provide for them? Do garden
centres know what their customers
want to buy? Have we done
any scanning to see what trends
might be important in the future?
Have we ever attempted to define
“value”? Or, do we simply want to
sell what we had last year, only a
bit more?
Serendipity
In some genera, we see that some
breeders are making concerted efforts
to breed towards specific goals
that promise improved value. This
is largely limited to the genera and
species for which there is already
a considerable established market.
Pelargonium, Petunia, Lavandula
and Dianthus would be good
examples.
But for many other genera, and
there are thousands to choose from,
breeding is largely undertaken on
a small scale by enthusiasts, on an
ad hoc basis by growers, or is even
the simple product of serendipity;
the interesting mutation spotted
in a garden or nursery, the openpollinated
seedling that comes up
beside the path.
Professional versus
amateur breeders
For the professional breeder, there
is a simple relationship. Understand
what your customer (perhaps also
your employer) desires and then
steer your breeding programme
towards it, working to convince
your customer that what you have
will meet their needs and be better
than that of your competitors.
For the amateur breeder, the relationship
is more complex. Firstly,
they may not know who their
customer is or might be. They will
almost certainly only have limited
understanding of what the customer
might want. The customer
themselves may not be familiar
with the genus or species that the
breeder is working with and will
not have any perception of the value
and benefits that the new plant
might have.
In addition, there is the issue of
personality. Amateur breeders are
often very emotionally attached
to the products of their breeding
(professionals are a little more
dispassionate in my experience).
They can also often be far removed
from the norms of the commercial
environment. There’s no HR
manager here.
Agent
In such circumstances, the new
plant needs an advocate, someone
who will wave the flag and promote
its benefits. Rarely is this person the
breeder, as they will often only have
limited connections to the wholesale
trade. So this becomes the role
the breeders’ agent offers to the
breeder; a knowledge of the trade, a
long list of valuable contacts and an
understanding of what is required
and how to deliver it.
Equally, the grower also needs the
agent to bring new varieties to their
attention, often from outside the
normal channels. Varieties that will
provide commercial advantage. The
agent can also provide an interface
for the breeder that integrates
more readily with the commercial
environment.
Trust
Both the agent-breeder and agentgrower
relationship are born out of
Phygelius seedlings.
38 www.FloraCultureInternational.com | CIOPORA Chronicle April 2013