I acquired STEEPLE JACKIE in 2010 @ Harmon's in New England. I like the olde stuff, the Historicals. I have quite a few that I work with & am still adding a few from time to time as I hear about them, or encounter them on both my internet & less frequent actual garden-visit 'walk-abouts'
It's a late one for sure. FFO this season is today 21 August (2x blooms with MANY! more to come along yet.) (I'm probably in the transition zone between 4a > 4b south-central Ontario) This is the earliest that SJ has FFO hereabouts. Latest has been September 10th. Last season - 2020 - SJ bloomed from September 4 thru to October 19th - about 6 weeks - and I noted that it was a Cool Morning Opener (CMO) @ 46F that morning.
With an incredibly dry - drought! - season (I provide water - but not regularly) Steeple Jackie has put up 4 sturdy - standing-on-their-own - scapes. The consistent westerlies & occasional northern storms make the scapes sway certainly - but I don't recall ever, a broken one or one leaning severely. Wire-like scapes. Wildflower scapes which I like to see - thin & flexible & strong .... Even with small flowers like SJ & Boutonniere me thinks you should notice the bloom more than the scapes. That's one of the reasons why I decided to work with only diploids years ago ..... as many (Most?) tetraploids seem to have heavy athletic-muscled scapes. (Some remind me of body builders & weight lifters .... Certainly needed for their 8-9-10"+ contrived blooms.)
Did I mention that I kinda like Steeple Jackie?
I have frozen pollen, but like most breeders, I prefer to use fresh blooms .... And today I've a few prolific bloomers (Cobb's Hill Jester + Numbers Game!) plus RE & Lates to play around with with SJ now that it's ready. (Ace Up My Sleeve + Fulvous Brushman + Lyonnesse + Seventh Inning Stretch + Fragrant Returns + Pardon Me + Double pardon Me + Way Up There + Boutonniere + Grape Magic + Dappled Dynamo + a couple of NOIDS & several seedlings of my own). I've made a few Xs in past seasons with SJ & will do so again this season looking for the ideal 'Wildflower' form. With such late crosses, you need to be prepared for special care once into October, what with hard frosts (Had snow here one October 19th) - Finish the pods on their scapes standing in water or move to protection if you breed while in pots as I sometimes do.
