Hybridizers: And so it begins..., 2 by pmmGarak

pmmGarak wrote:
no, I\'m not gone ;-) But I still seem to have to learn a lot.

First of all, the indoor generation of Nigella doesn\'t work out quite right. No matter how much artificial lighting they might get, they\'re so scrawny I couldn\'t do proper selection.And it looks like I\'ve failed to prevent selfing, because none of the intermediates I hoped for seem to be intermediates at all - that\'s even more confusing because Nigella, and most of all Nigella orientalis, performs some kind of \"sexual ballet\" - don\'t laugh: not only spread the anthers before opening, it\'s the styles that start straight upwards in the bud, then bend down until the whole thing looks like an octopus - that\'s when I think they\'re fertile - to finally stretch out again to give the capsules their characteristic form. So i thought they were easy to emasculate ant then protect from unwanted pollen, but as I said, looks like I\'ve been wrong.

Most other projects are work in progress - I have about 100 small tigridia pavonia bulbs dormant in the basement - i guess they won\'t bloom this year, still far too small, but I knew that would take time. Under ideal conditions, Tigridia can bloom in it\'s second year, a T. VanHouttei did that for me, but the pavonias were far too crowded in that pot. Gladiolus will likely take even longer to flower, and those are only the future parents. I\'ve collected seed from my commercial hybrid Eremurus (though named \"romance\" it seemed to be self-compatible enough to grow 3-4 capsules) which are now germinating well out in the garage - in the cold, as was to be expected from a cold dessert plant.

So why am I not totally depressed? Well. As I mentioned, only Digitalis Purpurea, Grandiflora and Lutea flowered last year - all the other \"flat ground\" species seem to prepare for flowers this year, they\'re already stirring outside. I\'m not so sure about the shrubby ones, I don\'t know these well enough to tell. At least, D. Obscura survived the winter outside quite well. The former Isoplexis species Canariensis and Sceptrum died outside, three Canariensis survived in the (bright) garage, and all those in cool bright places inside are doing well, so I\'m hoping for the best.
My seedlings seem to show that I was successful with crossing Lutea and Purpurea - something that works out in nature as well. Image one shows, on the left a seedling of D. Purpurea, and on the right one of D. lutea - the plant in the middle seems to be a perfect intermediate, at least with the new leaves - the first few seem to be lutea-style for this cross. Seed parent was lutea. The second picture rises my spirit even further - that seedling is still indoors, and most of it\'s leaves look lutea, apart from the newest. If it really proves to be intermediate, it also shows that the variegation of my lutea is not a strictly recessive gene! So despite all failures, i seem to have some interesting results.