Viola & Pansy Top 10 Festival Favourites 2024

Posted: 19 Mar 2024

Between 9th – 17th March this month, we celebrated our 21st Viola & Pansy Festival. 

We have held the Viola and Pansy Festival every March since 2004. It is the largest independent variety trial of these plants held in the world, with seed of new varieties supplied by plant breeders from around the world. We have had seeds from USA, UK, Holland, German, Japan and more! 

We are pleased to say that this years festival has been very successful with 2177 visitors voting for their festival favourites – It proves our Viola & Pansy Festival is an event that cannot be missed!

The votes are incredibly helpful to our plant breeders as they will know which varieties perform well during growing and then catch the public's eye in the garden centre. These votes can potentially decide which varieties get sold commercially! All the plants at the festival are either new, experimental or improved varieties. Each variety is a product of a process that can take about 7 years from discovering the variety testing and building up stock. The vast majority never make it to garden centre benches.

 The Top 10 festival favourites were:

 

    Series  Variety
1 Viola Sorbet XP Morpho
2 Viola Floral Power  Purple Pearls 
3 Viola Bel Viso  Orange Jump Up 
4 Viola Floral Power  Orange Red Wing 
5 Viola Floral Power  Yellow Beacon
6 Viola Deltini Rose Pink 
7 Viola Sorbet XP  Lemon Jump Up 
8 Viola Penny Pro  Blue Marina
9 Viola Deltini  Honeybee
10 Viola Bel Viso Pineapple Crush

 

   

Left to right: 1st Place Sorbet XP Morpho, 2nd Place Floral Power Purple Pearls & 3rd Place Bel Viso Orange Jump Up. 

 

These images are owned by the plant breeders.

Sorbet Xp Morpho : Ball Horticultural Company

Floral Power Purple Pearls : Takii Europe B.V.

Bel Viso Orange Jump Up: Syngenta Flowers

 

These results will be published in the gardening and trade press!

 

Come along to our Viola & Pansy Festival in 2025 – 8th March – 16th March 2025


Viola & Pansy Top 10 Festival Favourites 2024

Meadow Croft's German Market is open every day until 23rd December.

Our Late Nights are now on every Wednesday and Thursday until 12th December. Featuring live performances from Rayleigh Brass, you can do some late-night shopping at both the German Market and the Garden Centre, then stop by the Market Tavern for a drink and a bite to eat
It's day 3 of our Advent Special Offers:
30% off Nutcrackers
Meadow Croft's German Market is open every day until 23rd December
Don't forget to pick up your Advent Calendars, we have ones with music, chocolates, gifts and even ones with pictures behind the doors.
It's day 2 of our Advent Special Offers:
25% off all Gonks
Meadow Croft's Late Nights are now on every Wednesday and Thursday until 12th December. Featuring live performances from Rayleigh Brass, you can do some late-night shopping at both the German Market and the Garden Centre, then stop by the Market Tavern for a drink and a bite to eat
It's day 1 of our Advent Special Offers:
50% off all Advent Candles!
Simon’s here to share some gardening jobs for December - if you watch until the end, Simon has a special offer for you...
Our beautiful Poinsettias have been delivered. They have been grown by our friend Ian Mills of Creswick Nursery near Dartford, his family nursery was started in 1907!
To celebrate the advent of Christmas, Meadow Croft will be opening our very own advent calendar every morning at 9am to reveal an amazing in store special offer. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled to see what bargains we have in store.
A quick reminder that Meadow Croft's Late Nights start tonight (Wednesday 20th November)...we can't wait. Featuring live performances from Rayleigh Brass, you can do some late-night shopping at both the German Market and the Garden Centre, then stop by the Market Tavern for a drink and a bite to eat
We have a great selection of quality real trees for you.
Make a day out when picking your tree and have a game of Bavarian Curling, grab a bratwurst and wander round our German Market.
We'd love to see a picture of your tree once decorated too!

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