Researches Concerning the Behavior of New Callistephus Chinensis Varieties for Enrich the Romanian Floral Assortment

Callistephus chinensis L. it is an annual species. It is an ornamental plant grown in gardens and numerous cultivars are available. The species is very important in the floriculture industry in Japan, for cut flowers (www.wikipedia.org.) Our researches were aimed to development 18 new varieties of C. chinensis received from the firm SATIMEX, Germany, on a period of vegetative behavior in Transylvania, Romania conditions.
Observations and determinations were made on the main morpho-decorative characters such as: colors, high plants, circumference of plant, number of flower/inflorescence, diameter of flower, diameter of receptacle, number of branched stem per plant, number of ligules and resistance to diseases.
The results obtained include great varieties between the characters analysed. The color of the varieties are white cream (Lady Coral Creamy White), yellow (Sea Starlet Yellow, Harlekin Yellow), pink (Lady Coral Rose), red (Sea Starlet Bright Red, Juwel Purpurit) and blue-violet (Lady Coral Light Blue, Sea Starlet Lavender, Sea Starlet Violet). The Callistephus varieties are vigorous, growing tall between 50.4cm (Lady Coral Deep Red) to 83.7cm (Harlekin Violet), with branched stems up to 17.5cm (Sea Starlet Cream). The flowerhead are variable from 7.1cm (Harlekin Yellow) to 10.7cm (Rose of Shanghai Rose-White), generally having a medium diameter. The form and number of ligules are different; and we remark the flowers that have over 500 ligules (Sea Starlet Bright Red, Sea Starlet Violet, Sea Starlet Yellow, Harlekin Crimson, Rose of Shanghai Light Blue and Rose of Shanghai light Rose).

All data obtained were interpreted statistically by calculating the average and the significance of differences was tested. The most representative C. chinensis varieties can be used for garden design or as cut flowers in vase or different summer arrangements.