Green Ghost was a 2019 introduction and is one of Luel’s favorite diploids (in general, she prefers tetraploids). As we have worked on diploids, we have found that getting plants with good bud count was more difficult than with the tetraploids. Green Ghost stood out with good budcount (registered at 23 buds). We also appreciate the many things going on in the flower – large green throat, lavender band next to green (I like that color combination), small rose purple petal color, strong bicolor with lighter sepals, and a fine white edge around the petals.
The background of Green Ghost breeding shows what we developed in our breeding program and what outside sources we used to get diversity. The pollen parent was seedling 115-1 (Arno’s Bow Tie x Emerald Starburst). We first developed Arno’s Bow Tie from out initial green throated breeding plants and then crossed it with the much sought after Emerald Starburst from George Doorakian. Emerald Starburst was a lovely flower on a so-so plant but we successfully incorporated it into our breeding program. Seedling 115-1 never made it to registration but was able to pass on the genetics to Green Ghost.
The pollen parent was seedling 226-1 (Search for Green Pastures x Cosmic Kaleidoscope). We purchased Cosmic Kaleidoscope from Jack Carpenter to bring patterns to our green throats. Seedling 226-1 showed a little patterning but never made it to introduction. We found CK to be evergreen and not necessarily hardy here. Many of the seedlings from CK were also evergreen and were not vigorous. We always crossed evergreen plants with our hardy dormant plants and sometimes it takes several generations for hardy dormants to appear. Search for Green Pastures was one of our introductions and is a dormant with Emerald Starburst as one of the parents.
We suspect Green Ghost’s large lavender band may be due to CK genetics in the background but the large green throat was from our green throated breeding. Green Ghost has been a vigorous grower and is fertile both ways. While the first seedlings are under evaluation, we are seeing some promising results. Below are some we are evaluating:
Seedling 704-8 is out of Cosmic Bow Tie (Arno’s Bow Tie x Cosmic Kaleidoscope ). Seedling 720-1 has the pod parent the reverse of Cosmic Bow Tie ( Cosmic Kaleidoscope x Arno’s Bow Tie). The large lavender band in the eye is the unique feature of this seedling.
From our seedlings out of Green Ghost that bloomed first last summer, (all the seedlings starting with number 9) we see a wide variety of shapes and colors. We look forward to evaluating them this summer.