Sunday, July 13, 2014

Smooth Mini Hulthemia

I'm not sure whether this seedling is a "final product", but I like it none the less.  Although I have had another thornless mini Hulthemia (see Smooth Hulthemias), this one has the vigor and continuous blooming power that the other seedling lacked.  Shortly after this seedling started blooming, it was clear that it would be a smaller blooming mini and since there were 3 larger blooming seedlings in close proximity, I thought that I would need to move it to protect it from getting crowded out by the other seedlings.  This seedling has instead turned out to be the more vigorous seedling and has somewhat crowded out the larger flowered Hulthemias that were flanking it.

The stems are quite smooth and free of prickles.


Interestingly, this is also only the second Hulthemia seedlings that I have noticed that has these "alligator skin" type hips.  Unlike the other seedling (see Unusual Hulthemia Hips), this seedling does not appear to have any dieback.  All of the growth remains green and healthy.


This seedling has been in near continuous bloom almost from it's first flower.  Even though this is a new 2014 seedling, I have begun using it in crosses with other mixed Hulthemia pollen.  This seedling was itself the result of a cross using mixed Hulthemia pollen, but because the mixed pollen came from new 2013 seedlings, I can make a good guess that it's pollen parent was a "Basye's Thornless" Hulthemia seedling, probably from 'Eyeconic Pomegranate Lemonade' X "Basye's Thornless".


This seedling's seed parent is also the seed parent of the other thornless seedling mentioned above and figures strongly into the genetics of some of my better Hulthemias.  It is code named "N159-5", and came from the following complex cross: <{Halo Today X [Geisha X (Tobo X Singin' in the Rain)]} X {[('Orangeade' X 'Abraham Darby') X 'Midnight Blue'] X 'Persian Sunset'}> X <{[('Orangeade' X 'Abraham Darby') X 'Midnight Blue'] X ('Geisha' X 'Baby Love')} X "mixed Hulthemia pollen".  The "mixed Hulthemia pollen" in this case had as it's source either 'Persian Sunset' or 'Tiggle'.
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 19, 2014 at 6:58 PM

    My husband Todd and I read an article about your germination process on Help Me Find and we read where you use Sunshine Mix #3 as the soil with Perlite on top, can you tell us if the Sunshine Mix #3 has been discontinued as we can't seem to find the product anywhere. Or can you tell us what else you might use for newly hybridized seedlings?

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  2. Jim SproulOctober 19, 2014 at 8:54 PM

    Hi Renee, are you in the U.S.? I don't know if it is available outside of the U.S. Here is a company that carries it: http://mcconkeyco.com/collections/growing-mixes-amendments/Growing-Mixes
    I use #1 as my base potting mix, then put a top dressing of #3 (about 1 inch). The seeds are planted into the #3. On that I put about 1/2 inch of perlite. I also like using #5 for cuttings that I root under mist propagation. Best wishes with your new seeds/seedlings!

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