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March 6, 2011

We will quit hybridizing in the basement tomorrow.  We usually figure at least 6 weeks from pollen dabbing to pods are ripe.  Quitting on March 7 gives us around third week of April for pods to ripen.  We then refrigerate seeds at least a couple weeks then can plant seeds by mid May.  Sprouted seedlings can go outside in garden in mid June and hopefully bloom in 2012.  We get better germination on seeds that are refrigerated longer. 

Our highlighted seedling today is 78-1.  The parentage on this one is all our own introductions.  Pod parent is (Hello Darkness x  Ancient of Days) x Song of the Redeemed.  78-1 first bloomed in 2010 and based on basement growth is dormant.  The color is rich dark red and has a heavy gold edge.  It opened well outside and in basement.  It has been a smaller flower (around 5 inch) and is smaller than any of its parents.  The color is so nice we are using it in basement and will spread pollen on some of our plants next summer as well. 

 

We brought a few named plants in the basement from other hybridizers to work with our own seedlings.  In purples, we have Magical Marrakesh (Stamile) and Briar Patch (Grace).   Magical Marrakesh has nice color and a nice edge.  Briar Patch is quite toothy but is consistently blotchy.  Many of our seedlings are consistently unblemished so using them with Briar Patch may breed out the blotchy look.  Seedling 78-1 is one of the seedlings we have used with Magical Marrakesh and Briar Patch.