Werckmeister's Beauty X Child of God

Werckmeister's Beauty

Child of God

The goal: tetraploid 3/4-breds with near-aril-like flowers, in diverse patterns and colors, on highly gardenable plants. 

The pod parent, Werckmeister's Beauty, is an exceptionally easy-to-grow aril of known species ancestry. From Bronze Beauty X (Teucros x I. susiana) - which charts back to species with its greatgrandparents: two I. stolonifera, two I. hoogiana, two I. susiana, one I. korolkowii, and one I. iberica

Child of God is a halfbred that not only has an intricate pattern itself but in earlier experiments appeared able to pass on aril-like dotting and veining to its offspring. 

Werckmeister's Beauty has been one of the best tetraploid aril parents I've used, in terms of producing unusual color/pattern combinations. I thus hoped this cross would produce something other that the range of purple selfs that are so prevalent among the tetraploid 3/4-breds.  I was not disappointed.

 

Cross #89-18

On maiden bloom, twenty siblings were selected for further evaluation. These five were then reselected and performance-tested.

89-18-4

89-18-7

89-18-15

Seedling # 89-18-16 has already been registered as Skies of Blue.

# 89-18-7, #89-18-15, and #89-18-17 are still under consideration for introduction.

Seedling # 89-18-4 did not pass the performance test

89-18-16

 

89-18-17

 

Cross #90-46

If seedlings can be said to be jinxed, this is a prime example.  

First, a sudden hail storm hit while I was lining out the seedlings -- after they were in the ground and before their shadecloth was up....  

Then, we had a flash flood -- and this cross was in one of the few seedling beds affected by it....

Finally, this sole-survivor bloomed out.

At least it further demonstrated the potential of this cross -- as the luster of the falls was not just the  "diamond dusting" that is now found in many arilbreds but was enhanced by beads of silver.  

90-46-4

 

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