Hybridizers: And so it begins..., 5 by pmmGarak

pmmGarak wrote:
Hi Pistil,

as you might have guessed, I\'m already a PBS member - that bulb photo of T. vanhouttei is from me. T. Orthantha is definitely on my list, though I already had to learn they are not as tolerant of being lifted as T. pavonia, T. vanhouttei and Cypella herbertii (Tribus Tigridieae as well, pic 3 - I must admit that since all Tigridieae look extremely similar besides their flowers, I really don\'t know how the genus borders were defined - and the professionals don\'t seem to know either, because they\'re constantly restructuring, killing off Rigidella, Sessilanthera, Fosteriana and parts of Collima, dropping all into Tigridia), my seedlings didn\'t come back from dormancy. Molseed wrote all Tigridias can be kept from going dormant until the first flowering, so i\'ll put my next batch of seedlings under lights next winter.

I\'ve now had my first T.vanhouttei of this year, and from a bulb that didn\'t flower before (I have 4 individuals with buds this year), and to my surprise it (pic1) looks quite different than last years flowers (pic2), as it is darker, more defined on the inner petals, and more pointed on all petals. As they are all in the same pot, I\'ll soon see if it\'s genetic or environmental.

I\'m not sure if I can transfer that knowledge to Tigridias, but on the daylilly forum is a thread about 8-petaled flowers - they call them polys - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1399983/ and in daylillies it seems partly genetic and more likely on the first flower - the plant that started with 2x4 petals had normal 2x3 forms on its next bloom - still even if it\'s just partly genetics, its likely that the likelyhood can be improved...

As last pics I\'ve included Digitalis canariensis, which opened a few weeks ago, just before the last other digitalis species ended, so I tried a few crosses.