12 September 2005 ( flash)
The mophead varieties we grew in the seventies were: Ami Pasquier (Reuthe,1975), Hatfield Rose (Treseder, 1974), white Mme E Mouilliere (Reuthe, 1975), Niedersachsen (Treseder, 1974), and Mousseline (Treseder, January 1974 and May 1976). From memory, the first Mousseline to be supplied was (wrongly) white, but the letter file cannot be found to confirm that.
The present situation is that none of our plants of these varieties definitely resemble “Matador” - yet. Suggestions from experienced growers will be deeply appreciated.
Up to early September, 2005, the fringed margins of the sepals had seemed strongly characteristic of “Matador”, but on September 10th we photographed rooted cuttings from “Matador” flowering in pots and their sepals were clearly not fringed - indeed the younger head showed no serrations at all.
Then on September 12th we found on the parent plant several corymbs whose sepals were serrated here and there, but definitely not enough to be described as fringed.
These discoveries seemed to give us a better chance of identifying “Matador”.