'Fragrant Cloud' X Rosa carolina

I had to move this hybrid two years ago and it's finally getting settled in and looks happy now. It was a difficult cross (I tried repeating it unsuccessfully) and happens to be one of my favorites for uniqueness. It's relatively cooperative as a seed parent although last year it refused to accept 'Home Run' pollen. It is the mother of one I call "MR1" (which was from 'Carefree Sunshine' pollen) and also of the 3/4 native seedling I posted here last year (which was from pollen of a Rosa virginiana clone). It's only a once-bloomer but is fairly healthy and has a great fragrance.

Successful F1 Wheats

The first pictures shows a seedhead emerging from one of my stabilized wheat lines (at least 8 generations of selfing) that I call "Smooth Awnless Club". It was derived from a cross I did many years ago of a common bread wheat as seed parent and 'Pima' club wheat as pollen parent. "Smooth Awnless Club" has the typical compacted seedhead architecture of club wheats. In crosses, the seedhead is usually intermediate in length. This makes it relatively easy to confirm hybridity of intended hybrid seedlings.

Last season I used this "Smooth Awnless Club" as seed parent and 'Black Emmer' as pollen parent. I got a total of five shriveled seeds (this cross is between a hexaploid and tetraploid so may be a little more difficult than same ploidy crosses). Now that the seedlings are heading, I see that three are actual hybrids by their more elongated seedheads. Two are apparent accidental selfings. I'm really excited about all of the possibilities that are contained in this match. From what I've read, future generations should start segregating out lines that tend to be either tetraploid or hexaploid. It should be very obvious which are which, because the gene for compact head structure resides on the D genome. This is the group of 7 pairs of chromosomes that make the hexaploids different from the tetraploids. So hexaploid lines should be club type and tetraploid lines should be elongated. 'Black Emmer' is one of the healthiest wheats that I've grown but it is a "covered wheat" - it doesn't thresh free of its seed coverings. Hopefully I can get the disease resistance and vigor of 'Black Emmer' incorporated into some of my locally adapted club lines and simultaneously introgress the free threshing trait into 'Black Emmer' types. [I have another cross setting seeds right now, that should also help in this direction - it's 'Black Emmer' X 'Kamut']

The very bottom picture shows seedheads from a cross of another of my club lines (I call "Wooly Club") with 'Spelt' wheat. "Wooly Club" is derived from the same original cross that gave "Smooth Awnless Club". From "Wooly Club" X 'Spelt' I got four seeds. All four seedlings have headed out with the same obviously hybrid (elongated) seedheads.

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.

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.

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.