It’s getting to me, isn’t it. Advertising plants in the trade magazines. After the plants advertised with no names, the Bacopa and the Mandevillas, here’s another ridiculous, but rather different case.

There’s a new alyssum from PanAmerican Seed, it’s called Clear Crystal®. OK, not everyone gets excited about alyssum but this actually looks quite a valuable advance – though not for the reason stated in their ad.

“First-ever colors” says the ad in Grower Talks. No. Alyssum Clear Crystal® comes in three very familiar colors: white, lavender and purple. Nothing “first-ever” about them. What’s more these same colors, and more, are already available in PanAmerican’s previous series of alyssum – ‘Easter Bonnet’. The breeder that really does have “first-ever colors” of alyssum is K. Sahin in The Netherlands. Some years ago K. Sahin introduced red, apricot, lemon and salmon in their Aprodite Series (scroll down where you'll find them under Lobularia - their correct botanical name). So let’s not have any nonsense about how the same old colors are actually “first-ever colors”.

But. There’s one other thing about Clear Crystal® alyssum which really is genuinely new and important and which could convince all those people who never pay much attention to alyssum to take it more seriously. And it’s only hinted at in the ad.

These plants are tetraploid, with twice as many chromosomes as other alyssum. That means the plants are more vigorous – both for the grower and the gardener - the flowers are larger, they bloom for longer, the plants are tougher, and they’re more weather resistant. This is all hinted at by the phrase “bigger vigour” – fair enough.

But the “Breakthrough Breeding” is not the release of the same old colors, but that this is the first tetraploid alyssum. Perhaps they think growers will be put off by the word “tetraploid” – though retail seed company Mr Fothergill seems happy to use the term. Perhaps PanAmerican’s ad agency also think growers won’t know that the true “first-ever colors” come from another company.

Come on – be straight. Especially when there’s actually a great story to tell.