After extended trials of the new Geranium 'Kelly-Anne' PBR EU 20200953 worldwide, there’s no doubt about it: ‘Kelly-Anne’ is a real improvement on the current range. But as with any innovation, it did take some effort to make it this far. 

 

“There were companies that were initially skeptical about ‘Kelly-Anne’, thinking it was just another Geranium people spoke highly about but would ultimately fail to deliver. Peter and Tieme at Plantipp have worked incredibly hard to get Kelly-Anne onto trials worldwide, and they succeeded,” says Remy Lubbe, owner of Molter BV. “The results were impressive. 

Something we already knew would happen! After a short trial period, even the most skeptical companies indicated that they were completely convinced: ‘Kelly-Anne’ was an improvement on the current offer.” 

 

Many know Molter BV as a nursery, but the breeding of perennials is significant at Molter BV. They are at a point at which they can be called a full-fledged breeding company: “We’re no gold diggers. We put our focus on the breeding of perennials. We are now breeding sixty different crops.” 

 

In addition to the success of Geranium ‘Kelly-Anne’, Remy and his team had a few great successes in the past as well: “My father worked for a mail-order company, and when we were working on catalogues together, we noticed that there was an increasing demand for new plants. Sales would skyrocket as soon as we’d label a new plant as ‘new’ in the catalogue. This motivated me to meet that demand for new plants, and I soon made my first crossings.” 

 

The first plant to emerge from these crosses was Penstemon Red Riding Hood: a considerable success. Red Riding Hood was so popular that seven more colours followed in the following years, and with that, the Riding Hood series was born. “If something like that happens to you, you’re in love. It makes you enthusiastic, and you follow that enthusiasm with passion. We now have a team of three people working specifically on breeding, and we sow tens of thousands of seedlings from over a thousand crosses each year.”

 

Although breeding is a team effort, Remy was the lucky one who discovered ‘Kelly-Anne’. “Everyone says that Geranium Rozanne is sterile and doesn’t set seed, but we were eventually able to harvest about ten seeds from one plant. Those seeds ultimately formed the basis for the new seedlings – including ‘Kelly-Anne’.” 

And ‘Kelly-Anne’ stepped up to the majors: “The colour was very striking, really pink. And that was the demand at the time, and therefore our quest. What stood out even more, was that ‘Kelly-Anne’s’ qualities were even better than Rozanne’s. ‘Kelly-Anne’ flowers just a bit more compactly, and where Rozanne’s flowering capacity weakens at very high temperatures, ‘Kelly-Anne’ continues to flower happily, even in the heat.”

 

After the discovery of ‘Kelly-Anne’, things happened at rapid pace. “We found ‘Kelly-Anne’ among the first crop of seedlings from the first year’s crosses. We were very lucky: we found the perfect plant in one go.” And as luck will have it, companies worldwide are now convinced of the same.

 

What does the future hold? “The Anne’s Family® will be expanded considerably in the coming years with colours such as blue and purple. My biggest dream is to breed a white Geranium one day. We won’t find another stunner like ‘Kelly-Anne’ just like that, but with patience and hard work, we will add several equally impressive family members with equally impressive characteristics.”