DIPLOID
REBLOOMERS:
My
other interest in diploids involves developing everblooming plants such as
STELLA D’ORO, HAPPY RETURNS and EARLY AND OFTEN.
I had wanted to work with white and red colors but have pretty much
abandoned the white line since my friend Mike Huben has already made so many
advancements in that color.
It seems that red is an extremely difficult color to work with in everbloomers. I’ve made several crosses of EARLY AND OFTEN with SILOAM PAUL WATTS, DEMPSEY RED VELVET, MARILYN APPS and CARIBBEAN MISTY MARTIN but no true red seedlings have shown up and very few have rebloomed. I will be making some F2 crosses from the best seedlings to see if red and rebloom can be recovered but I am not too hopeful at this time. However, there are some interesting plants showing up in the seedling fields and some of them really rebloom.
One interesting reblooming
line involves using EARLY AND OFTEN, STELLA’S SPARKY and a Mike Huben
seedling, MH0067D.
At left is
sdlg. (STELLA’S SPARKY x EARLY AND OFTEN) which typically throws 7 sets of
scapes per season. It has 2 problems
- the pleasing melon pink color blend fades to amber on hot, sunny days and
it is a difficult pod parent. But with early bloom, rebloom, excellent
increase, beautiful deep blue-green foliage and 15 to 18 buds per scape it is
a plant that I feel holds promise for developing strong northern rebloomers.
When
crossed onto MH0067D (at right, a Mike Huben seedling that also throws 7 sets of
scapes per season)
the results were varied but there were many
strong rebloomers
in interesting pastel colors.
11 of the 17 seedlings from
this cross bloomed in 4 months from seed in the greenhouse.
Most have at least 3 sets of scapes.
However, the budcounts, branching and substance on many of them are not
where I would like these traits to be although budcounts improve on late season
scapes.
A fortuitous cross in
attempting to develop everbloomers involved using APRICOT SPARKLES (D. Apps) as
a pod parent and FREQUENT FLIER (
APRICOT
SPARKLES (above-left) typically produces 7 sets of 16 in. to 20in. tall
scapes with 15 to 18 blooms and has excellent foliage, fertility and increase.
FREQUENT
FLIER (above-right) is taller at 22in. to 24in., reblooms 4 to 5 times here,
has excellent branching with 2 laterals and 22 buds, good foliage and fertility
and typically throws many reblooming seedlings. Some results of this cross are
shown below as two year old seedlings.