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

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

3/4 Native rose hybrid OP

I don't know what I was thinking planting these so thickly...

guess maybe I oughta try to get them lined out before too long.

As a reminder these are open-pollinated seeds from my rose hybrid that has this parentage:

('Fragrant Cloud' x Rosa carolina) X Rosa virginiana

So the maternal grandmother of that hybrid was a Hybrid Tea, and everything else is native tetraploid species rose.

Here are links to older posts about that rose...

http://maprc.blogspot.com/2012/05/rose-fragrant-cloud-x-carolina-x.html
http://maprc.blogspot.com/2010/05/fragrant-cloud-x-rosa-carolina-x-rosa.html
http://maprc.blogspot.com/2010/09/late-summer-foliage-on-34-native-rose.html

I don't know who the pollen parent of all of these seedlings was.

Viola arvensis and Viola bicolor

Both the of these tiny-flowered pansy species are relatively common out in our vegetable garden. Viola arvensis is an introduced European. Viola bicolor (which I think is also sometimes called Viola rafinesquii) is generally believed to be the only North American native in the pansy group (section Melanium). In the first picture, you can compare Viola arvensis (left) with Viola bicolor (right). The second picture shows Viola arvensis with a typical orange pansy so you can see how small it is. The third picture shows the same pansy flower with Viola bicolor. I'm using pollen of this orange pansy on both of the small flowered species trying to get some F1 hybrids. I've used pansy on Viola arvensis before successfully but have never tried it on Viola bicolor.


Monday, April 15, 2013

3/4 Native rose hybrid OP

The open-pollinated seeds from my hybrid I call "3/4 native" are coming up and already showing some variability in pigmentation (also several chlorotic/albino ones). 

Moschata squashes

A Long Island Cheese type "pumpkin" and two butternuts - I'm sure these would store for even longer, but I needed the seeds for planting so I went ahead and processed them. I left them in the 300 degree F oven for HOURS because I was busy working outside and had forgotten about them. In spite of that blunder, they turned out great and altogether made 14 cups of puree.

Iris purpureobractea hybrid

I posted a picture of this one recently but since that time the leaves have elongated extending the purple up quite a bit.

Geum seedlings

I'm hoping something cool will show up among these Geum urbanum seedlings. This species has small yellow flowers but has cool clove-scented roots. I used pollen from an improved Geum on it.

Hollywood Plums

Here are our three Hollywood plum trees blooming quite heavily for such a young age. This year I'm going to have to figure out a good way to foil the birds - who pecked every single fruit last year.

The Fall-planted Pansies

They've really rebounded from the winter. The orange one seems especially vigorous.

Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' returns

I was hoping that planting Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' near the foundation would give it a better chance of overwintering. As you can see by the three sprouts in the upper right of the picture and the three sprouts in the lower left, it looks like it's going to stick around for at least another season.