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highjack

seedlings - the good, the bad & the ugly

highjack
17 years ago

Oooops, not many good ones, lots of bad ones and several of the ugly and no, no pictures.

Walking to the seedling field every day used to be exciting - not anymore, I dread it this year. I have had some outright ugly ones, even out performing the uglies in the past. I have even eliminated a couple because the genes jumped back not just to the 60's but circa 1945. Arlo would have been excited. Please, don't tell me these could improve - they can't jump centuries.

One of the strange ones has been a cross of GENTLEMAN OF VERONA x ALTER EGO. GOV is a beautiful clean yellow with a unique pattern in the throat and AE is a true spider, pale lavender/pink in color. Where did the muddy brick red with muddy purple big eye come from? I know I can't get the pattern on a spider in one generation but gosh, this is so ugly I don't think I can look at it two years in a row to do additional crossing. I have some other GOV things that will bloom this year - hope they are better.

Another strange one but one which will be fun to watch is a purple one and the pedigree is seedling (ADMIRALS BRAID x CHANCE ENCOUNTER) X RIBBONS AND THINGS. Expecting pink or lavender, I got purple. There is someone on the net who tells you what to expect from each cross from color to budcount to branching. It sure would be nice if I could use the crystal ball because this bloom was not what I was expecting. The scape was also strange on this one - it is one big fan with two small side fans and the scape comes out of the ground as two scapes. I wonder if there had been more moisture this past year, if this would have been a fused scape.

The seedlings from previous years are starting to bloom and a couple of purple spufs have pretty good color this year and are threatning to be spiders. The only other one that has caught my eye is a EMPIRE RETURNS x SPACECOAST SURPRISE PURPLE (purchased seeds). It looks like it is working on some possible sculpting and some teeth.

I bought CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION (Carpenter) this year to cross with a couple of my red seedlings. It bloomed today and is gorgeous - there wasn't a blemish on it. I immediately picked it and brought it in to collect the pollen. I had to grab it early because this is the only bud on the scape. I sure hope it sends up rebloom scapes but boy, it is a pretty thing. If it doesn't, I have something to look forward to next year.

Admiring my seedlings and dragging hoses, this has been my day.

Brooke

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