We at Selecta believe in developing plants for the future considering three main aspects: contentment, convenience and conscience.
What do we mean by that? It is obvious that ornamental plants are used for decorating homes and gardens. They are there to enrich our lives and to bring beauty and a feeling of being in touch with nature. A nice garden area offers us a private haven. To achieve this, breeders are constantly developing new and exciting plant types, such as hanging petunias and calibrachoas, and interesting new colors.
But ornamental plants need to be not only beautiful. As an industry, we need to meet the consumer’s desire to achieve more with doing less. Not everyone is a hobby gardener; hence we need to breed plants that are more forgiving and tolerant to less water and wrong planting spots, as well as parasites.
These traits will offer consumer and producer benefits alike and will assure that as an industry we contribute to conserving our environment. Less heating input to grow finished plants means less cost for the grower as well as a product that is produced using fewer natural resources (reducing the carbon footprint). The same goes for drought-resistant plants as water becomes our most valuable resource in the future.
Selecta strives to bring the two segments together by addressing different needs with one common trait. However, we should not forget that our product is meant to bring pleasure and beauty. This will help us to develop exciting and marketable ornamental plants.