Gruppo Padana was the first Italian breeder and propagator at FlowerTrials. The company arrived with a large delegation. The entire European sales team spent two days at the event. “We want all our employees to experience FlowerTrials and put our company in a good light”, explains Sales Manager Mario Rigatti.
Gruppo Padana is mostly known as a propagator of young plants from seed and for their cuttings of a wide assortment of pot plants, annual summer-flowering plants, perennials and young vegetable plants.
The company started with breeding activities in 2013. Initially with primroses and violets. They couldn’t exhibit any flowering plants of these early summer-flowering varieties at the fair of course, but they brought some cuttings. “It’s great to have your own genetic materials”, says Rigatti.
Primabella is the brand of their primroses, which is subdivided into Primabella (medium-sized flowers), Primabella XL (large flowers) and Primabella Fun (various bicoloured varieties). They’re currently busy expanding the range. Their first ‘homemade’ petunia was presented at FlowerTrials: Top-lunia Purple Ice.
The company is obviously familiar with FlowerTrials and they visit the fair every year. Since the company is now also involved in breeding and they had already built up a reasonable assortment, they decided to exhibit too this year. Not with extraordinary high expectations, just to gain experience, said Rigatti.
They liked it so much, that participation in 2019 is as good as certain. “We’re proud to be the first Italian company at FlowerTrials. It’s an excellent stage to introduce ourselves as a breeder to growers, retailers and distributors. And we can’t complain about the amount of attention we got”, said Rigatti.
