Plants in all of these generas are selected for height, number of flowers stems, length of flower stems, bushiness, resistance to disease, and colouring of both flowers and foliage.

Varieties which flower when they are very short are desirable because they can first be sold as houseplants in a supermarket before being planted in the ground after blooming. There is a lot of demand for this in Germany and The Netherlands, where many of Jan's stock is sold.

Veronica
When it comes to garden Veronicas, Jan is looking, amongst other things, for plants with long flower spikes on short stems.

This unnamed seedling is good example of a plant with many flower spikes.

Plants that produce many secondary flower spikes around the main one are also high on the agenda as these obviously have a lot more colour. All of Jan’s varieties will perform in this way, but need to be encouraged by pinching out the main flower stem just as it’s developing.

A total of 5 new Veronicas were introduced from Jan's breeding program in 2005. As well as 'High Five' and 'Baby Doll', 'Purpleicious', 'Pink Panther' and 'Twilight' are also available this year. These plants are the final results of crossing work that began 7 years ago, with constant selection and observation since that time until Jan obtained plants that he was satisfied with.

As with many breeders these days, he’s always working to produce short varieties and considers about 16" (40cm) to be ideal height.

Astilbe

Jan has also been extremely busy working on Astilbes, especially because these are very popular in Germany, where many of his plants go to.

Hundreds of very short Astilbe seedlings, from which just 10 will be selected.

He has developed a huge range of very short varieties from which just 10 will be selected for introduction. Some are only 8” tall. Some have no pollen and are therefore incredibly long lasting flowers.

One again these are selected for number of flower stems, colour, blooming period and quality of foliage.