Outstanding Varieties Competition celebrates the unique Proflora atmosphere of togetherness

In August, the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters, Asocolflores, cancelled its Proflora show – one of the world’s premier floriculture events – because the ongoing global health uncertainty and travel restrictions made it impossible to hold an international event. However, the show must go on, and this year’s Outstanding Varieties Competition in Bogotá did happen in October allowing a group of industry professionals to soak up some typical Proflora atmosphere and discover exciting new flowers and cut foliage varieties, writes Jaap Kras, in FloraCulture International, December 2021.

Cristina Uricoechea, the driving force behind the Proflora show and its varieties competition, says, “In the contest, 14 genera of flowers and 286 plus varieties are vying for the highest honour. The winners are grouped into two categories: ‘breeders’ and ‘growers’.

“Consequently, there were some solid international entrants from the breeder’s category. It was a hat-trick for Royal Van Zanten, reigning supreme in the alstroemeria section, winning first place for its salmon-coloured alstroemeria ‘BE253’; adding a second-place for its coral ‘BK073’and third for its red ‘BE367’. In addition, they won the overall Breeders Champion title with ‘BE253’.

Long-standing Dümmen Orange customer and rose grower Vuelven S.A.S won no less than three awards for the Bluez+ standard rose.

Other notable wins for breeders include Hilverda Florist’s dianthus ‘Greenshot’; and Progeny Breeding scoring highly with its pink disbudded chrysanthemum ‘Bowie’.
Colombians held distinguished positions in the growers’ categories. Producers Plazoleta Bazzani scooped the highest award with his purple ‘Camaro’ alstroemeria.

There was outstanding first place wins for growers Colibri Flowers with dianthus ‘Lege Pink’ and Yasa SAS with ‘Maicy’, a white disbud chrysanthemum.

As an industry veteran with a long history in floriculture, I had the privilege of chairing the international jury this year. We crowned the standard rose variety ‘Bluez+’ submitted by Dümmen-Orange as the overall Outstanding Varieties Competition Winner.

We chose ‘Bluez+’ because of its presentation as a beautiful two-toned standard rose which features dark pink edged petals and a soft pink heart. ‘Bluez+’ is grown by Vuelven S.A.S and this presentation won them awards for Grand Champion and Growers Champion, and First Place in the Standard Rose category.

To check out the long list of all the entries of the Proflora Outstanding Varieties Competition visit: Proflora premió a los ganadores del Concurso de Variedades 2021 – Asocolflores