I totally agree! I once dug out all of the plants in my garden under 6.5" and have replaced them with those big ones. When I
see those in the 5" range, they just appear to be miniature now. The down side is also as noted, because most of those growers
who deal in larger flowers are in the south, and those plants don't always flourish here. Some are lucky to survive at all, so the
better plant habits are what I am going for.
One of the interests I have is to make new what was once old. I really love the very wide blunt sepals and a flower that is not
as heavily ruffled. Our new normal seems to include some droughty summers, and those heavy ruffles tend to hang up when
it is so dry. Another plus with fewer ruffles is having fewer issues with spotted flowers from Thrip damage. For me there seems
to be a dividing point of where garden perennials meet hothouse show flowers. Sometimes the two don't coincide, and I have
had to curb my enthusiasm for those ruffles.
Back several years there were only a selected few notable growers, but these days there are a significant number of backyard
hybridizers with an awesome imagination for diversity.
