Three New Streptocarpus Launches From Dibleys

North Wales based Dibleys are the country’s leading breeder and grower of Streptocarpus, other Gesneriads and Foliage Begonia and for the Chelsea Flower Show 2008 they are debuting three new Streptocarpus.

A family run business which was started in 1976 began as a hobby, growing Streptocarpus and selling by mail order direct to customers. Today the core business is still Streptocarpus and they sell to over 200 Garden Centres and show specimen plants at all the top flower shows.

There will be approximately 250 streptocarpus and begonia plants on the stand in the floral pavilion but Streptocarpus ‘Alissa’ may prove to be the star! The first commercial yellow Streptocarpus ever seen at Chelsea, this variety has been bred on the nursery and is the result of over eleven years of specific breeding to achieve this colour. Yellow is a recessive gene in Streptocarpus so this has been the holy grail of Streptocarpus breeding for many years. ‘Alissa’ is named after Lynne’s 11 year old niece.

The other two new plants are Streptocarpus ‘Rebecca’ and Streptocarpus ‘Targa’. The former is a pale lavender with purple veining over three of the five neatly upturned petals, it grows as a medium sized strep’ and was bred by Lynne bringing the total number of Streptocarpus that she has bred and introduced to 44. 18 of the plants have received the prestigious Award of Garden Merit.

Streptocarpus ‘Targa’ is a good sized plant for the windowsill with deep purple velvety flowers and Chelsea Flower Show will be the first opportunity for the public to see this German bred plant.

Traditionally Lynne’s displays have been quite naturalistic but this year sponsorship by German ceramic company Scheurich has inspired her to use coloured glazed pots in a more creative way. 170 ceramic pots of various size, shape and colour will influence the whole feel for the exhibit. Lynne will also use aluminium as a backdrop in areas to add contrast to the very modern Scheurich designs and with the highly colourful plants the result will be more than vibrant!

Lynne and her Father Rex Dibley have received over 70 Royal Horticultural Society Gold medals in the last 20 years. The Chelsea medal tally is 18 Gold medals and 3 Anthony Huxley Trophies.

Lynne has just returned from her 4th plant hunting and photographic expedition to Zulu Natal in South Africa. She has been taking photographs for the reprint on her father’s best selling Streptocarpus book which will be on sale from the stand at Chelsea Flower Show. Her first trip to South Africa was with the help of the Merlin Trust who encouraged her to go and study Streptocarpus in the wild. Later visits were to discover some of the extreme conditions that Streptocarpus live in.