This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

The international market for flowering pot plants was always looking for new product lines and a large number are released each and every year. For a number of years Australian native plants had been grown as container plants and flowering pot plants for the European, Asian and American markets. Scaevola and Brachyscome were two genera that had gained significant portions of these markets. A limitation to the expansion of these two plant products in the markets was the limited colours that were available at the time.

At the time, new colour forms had been identified that could be used in breeding programs to greatly expand the colour lines that could be developed for these products. Breeding programs for Scaevola and Brachyscome were designed to increase the range of colours and forms from available parent material. The reproductive and floral biology of these genera were examined to enable the reproductive barriers that existed to be overcome.