Sunday, December 1, 2013

Some Late Season Blooms

The colors on the seedlings always seem more saturated during cooler weather.  Here are a few Hulthemia seedlings that I think are some of the best from this season.

First, is a seedling of 'Midnight Blue' X "mixed Hulthemia pollen".  It is really that dark purple, and it has the blotch type that bleeds into the rest of the petal.


The next seedling is a vigorous mini Hulthemia coming from a cross between 2 Hulthemia seedlings "N159-5" X "O117-5".  The pollen parent is a half-sister Hulthemia seedling of 'Thrive!', so I am hoping that it will have better disease resistance.  It is setting OP hips, so I am checking its germination this year to decide whether or not to use it in crosses next year.


Below is another Hulthemia that I am hopeful for improved disease resistance.  It is from a cross of 'Darlow's Enigma' X "mixed Hulthemia pollen".


This next seedling is from a cross of "L56-1" (a clean mini seedling of 'Thrive!'), it was crossed with "M62".  "M62" was one of my cleanest earlier Hulthemia seedlings that exhibited a good heat stable blotch, but lacked vigor and was very thorny.  This new seedling has good vigor, but got the thorns of it's pollen parent.

The last seedling shown below is from a cross of 'Eyeconic Pomegranate Lemonade' X mixed "Knock Out" pollen (I mixed 'Knock Out', 'Double Knock Out', 'Sunny Knock Out' and 'Milwaukee Calatrava").  It inherited great blotch heat stability from the seed parent, and hopefully will prove to have better than average disease resistance coming from the pollen parent.  We will know more next year when it is grown outside.