... growing and hybridizing all kinds of plants in zone 6b Maryland since the 1980's.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Fragrant Columbines

I grew the Himalayan Columbine (Aquilegia fragrans) about 10 years ago and really liked the jasmine scented flowers. Unfortunately the plant just never was happy here. So a few years ago I purchased another plant to try to cross with all of the typical, common, blue-purple Aquilegia vulgaris types that are growing out front. Well, the new plant was just as puny as the first, but luckily I did get it to set a bit of seed from the blue-purple vulgaris pollen before it croaked. There are two of the color forms that the F1 have shown, a near white that is similar to fragrans and a light blue. These F1 are not as powerfully fragrant as Aquilegia fragrans, but they definitely are fragrant. And they're super vigorous! The upper flowers are quite a bit taller than a yardstick (meterstick) - see yardstick hidden in the bottom picture. I've started a small population of F2 to see if I can work back towards more fragrance while maintaining the healthy growth habits.

Striped Standard Bearded Iris Seedling

This seedling from the cross KEIRITH x CLOWN PANTS could be a fun path to explore. Striped falls (3 lower petals) are fairly commonplace among bearded irises, but it's a little more unusual to find striping up on the standards (3 upright petals). I've already got a few seedlings from it, but none have bloomed yet. This seedling is a 24 chromosome diploid, but I'd like to get this pattern crossed over into the tetraploid gene pool.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Rosa palustris X 'Home Run'

Here's some current foliage shots of two of the nine or so seedlings I planted out from this cross. Some are showing minor mildewing but overall they're looking very healthy.

Jerusalem Artichoke X 'Red Sun' sunflower

Here's a recent picture showing just how bushy and branching this seedling is. It germinated last Spring and was only a single stalk at the end of the season ( but with branches at the top). Even though it didn't get any of the flower color of the pollen parent, I fairly sure this is a true hybrid. I'll post on it again when it blooms in the late summer.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Rosa rugosa X 'Double White' Scotch Rose

Here are two from a cross of rugosa with ‘Double White’ Scotch rose. I was hoping to get something like I’d gotten from a previous cross of rugosa with spinosissima, only with double flowers this time. Well these aren’t double, but still very nice and darker than the batch from before with pollen of regular spinosissima. Those original ones haven’t ever set a single hip. As you’d expect, they are once-bloomers and sucker enthusiastically. I really need to explore the possibility that they might have some degree of pollen fertility.






Saturday, May 7, 2011

'Astra Girl' X "PBF/RM"

Although this seedling didn't quite turn out like I'd hoped... it is a pretty good specimen for PBF (purple based foliage). It also got some of the "red-margin" trait coming through "PBF/RM" from Iris suaveolens var. rubromarginata. "PBF/RM" is the garden name for a seedling I have that is from [('Kupari' x 'Rosemary's Dream') X ('Kupari' x Iris suaveolens var. rubromarginata)]. I'm hoping to eventually get an iris with all purple foliage. Wouldn't that be too cool!

Rosa glutinosa X palustris

Now that it's in the ground, this little guy is taking off!
Foliage scent is pretty close to glutinosa but slightly different.

Foliage shape is definitely more intermediate between the two species.






Rosa rugosa X 'Hazeldean'

This is the second year for this seedling to bloom. Was hoping it would be a little more "yellow" but it's a start (for a rugosa). I've got a couple of new seedlings just starting now from old seed of this same cross, so maybe one of these will be even better.