Beautiful. :) I'm on the fence about Orange Marmalade. Lowes is selling it this year for $10, so I guess it's in mass production. From the photos I've seen, it fades to a kind of ugly parchment.

Are you going to try to sprout seedlings from the Ice Age Trail or the Savannah Supreme?

PS - Those maple helicopter things are the bane of my existence. IL is at least 3 weeks ahead of us here in coastal NY, and I can see those things hanging in the trees waiting to fall all over the place.

I will be making some crosses using both of the streakers as pod parents. Pollen from Empress Wu will be one. This first year the crosses will be determined by bloom times, next year I will have stored pollen from everything that I want to use. I already built a setup in the basement for starting hosta seeds this coming Winter. I should be getting at least 6 more streakers this year for hybridizing.

Those aren't "helicopter things" on the ground. That's a special order Peoria Mulch. Nice plants, Frank.

Steve

Franknjim - Please keep us abreast of the empress wu x streaker crosses and your other hybridizing efforts. I think we'd all love to see something Empress Wu size but variegated.

Steve - It's not mulch when they all sprout into millions of baby trees in all my beds.

Beautiful colors, thanks for sharing. We're starting to break through the oak leaves pretty good here - so hopefully by the end of April we'll have some pics to share from zone 4. Maybe 2 or so weeks earlier than last year and about the same as 2010.

Paul

My Orange Marmalade is outstanding....at least it has been so far this year. If I remember correctly, it wasn't much to look at last summer when I bought it. I think it's claim to fame is about 6 weeks in the spring. It's also growing like a weed.

bkay

This photo does not do it justice. It's so much brighter and more colorful than the photo shows. This is 3/27/12
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This is as of 04/16/12
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Great Frank -- all your frost protection measures paid off and you have earned these fabulous results! Can you safely store the pots now, or are you still in danger?
Jan

I think it is safe to put the pots away now. I did get frost damage on some annuals because I didn't bother with trying to protect them. If they couldn't be moved into the garage, they were on their own.

Wow, I like that Lunda Moth. So how is the side of the garage coming?

bkay

The side of the garage got put on hold because of the freeze and frost. I was glad that I hadn't planted anything yet. I just moved all of the hosta in pots into the garage each time the temps dropped into the danger zone.

Frosty, I see where Ron Livingston has created a hybrid of Exceptional x Empress Wu that is called Rambo. Don't know whether it is as big as EW but it is has a dark green center, light green/gold ruffled edge.

luna moth fan!!!