Hooray!

I'm already looking forward to having you all visit next spring and I hope we can have even a bigger group so we can fill the "shed" at Robert's Crossing. Maybe we should plan on visits to Lynn's and Cynda's gardens too. Next year the daffodils should be at peak so there should be several thousand blooms out on them. and yes I cross them too.. 300+ pods this spring!

Normally spring is wet and cool here in Oregon but this year it has been dry and warm. Good for flowers not so good for transplanting. I did row out ~300 semp seedlings but the remainder are still in pots. It's supposed to cool down starting tomorrow. Lynn and Cymda are coming for lunch/tour/ plants tomorrow and we can thrash out some ideas for next spring's meeting too. Would those of you who attended want to share what you liked, didn't like, or needed more. This would help.

Kevin

Great idea, to put our heads together on what each would like to see in the clinic next spring.
I would like to learn when to take the best photos of the flower parts, photos of the different processes of the actual pollinating of the blooms in both semps and Jovis.
More information on storing pollen.
More about what are the dominate genes in semps when choosing a pairing.

I am someone that needs "hands on" I know there won't be flowers in spring to work with, so...guess I have to be brave and go for it if any of mine bloom! (with this heat, I'm thinking that's a good possibility)
I would be glad to help "row out" seedlings, I think that would be exciting!
More info on "naming" if there are any "rules" to that process. (do you name based on parentage, is it fully up to hybridizer what something is called? etc.)
Thanks, can't believe I must wait almost a year for the next workshop

Just watched the first 2 videos. Very nice! Wish I could've been there. I have my first batch of seedlings I've grown in plug flats. Very exciting. Look forward to hybridizing some. I'm very interested in Hybridizing with the rollers. I've contacted Erwin in Germany and he's willing to trade for some of his.

Wish you could have been there Mark. Maybe you can come next year?

Mark how fun that Erwin is into working with you! It would have been fun to meet you in person! I think the rollers bloom pretty readily, so cross breeding seems very doable!! We'll be looking for your hybrids in a couple of years! (You know you have a fellow "roller" lover here, so I could give you my opinion!)

Thanks for the suggestions!

You will be happy to know that I rowed out ~2K seedlings yesterday and they are so far looking happy. I hope to get another 1K rowed out this week so we will have PLENTY to evaluate in the clinic next spring. It is a good mix of all colors of semps and heufelliis so it should be a good group to evaluate. We are finally returning to the typical Oregon spring here this week (cool and moist) so it will be a good time to get them in the ground. Also got all the Pacific Coast Native and about half of the Siberian iris seedlings rowed out. I didn't look pretty on Saturday night! Hopefully I'll have that 8" purple cobweb in this group of seedlings!

The rollers are very rare ones to flower. I fact none of mine have flowered in the three years here in Oregon. Maybe they like Seattle beter Greg! Polly Bishop had them in huge clumps so she had blooms each year and it was in her garden that I made the cross that gave 'Emerald Spring'. it's too bad that the hybrids of the rollers X heufelliis are sterile. odd too as the whole group has a single chromosome number. Bringing in some of those characteristics to the rollers would be fun. 'Emerald Spring' will set seed but it makes this very weird snaky stalk. At the time I made the cross sobolifera was a different species, but now it's merely a subspecies of hirta. The seedlings that I raised from 'Emerald Spring' were variable, some favoring the sobolifera side. 'Emerald Fountain' also came from those early crosses with rollers. It has very fine small leaves. I don't have that one any more.

Happy gardening!

Kevin

Kevin 'Emerald Fountain' sounds fascinating!! Thanks for the info regarding sobolifera, none of mine look like they're going to bloom (yet! )
Cheers

Great information on crossing rollers with heuffelii. I have Emerald Spring, it hasn't bloomed for me yet. I have had some of my other rollers bloom though. Want pollen Kevin?

Any other suggestions for topics for Kevin to add to the clinic for next year? All those that attended the first one, did you have questions that you would like to see addressed come spring?

Kevin, Rollers flower often for me here in Maine. I do have scads of them as they're in my nursery. I hope to try my hand at it this year. I have offspring from hirta Astrid and h. Belansky Tatra. They're much slower to put on size than the other Semps.

Mark,

Interesting that you're getting so many flowers on the rollers. So far ZIP in my garden in Oregon. When I lived in MA, Polly Bishop had large clumps of the rollers and they would flower well for her but not me. I ended up using Polly's plants for crossing. Maybe I'm Jovibarba jinxed! Emerald Spring and Emerald Fountain did bloom in my garden and i was able to raise seedlings from both, although none of the seedlings was a real improvement.

Greg, Emerald Fountain has very small leaves like allioni but very narrow but is a bigger rosette than allioni, with many more leaves and a darker color and shape more like sobolifera. Helen was not keen on the rollers so Emerald Fountain was never marketed by her but Ed Skrocki sold it and distributed plants so I think plants are still on the planet. I made that cross the same year as IO made the Emerald Spring cross.

All: You would laugh if you were in my yard today as I have several beds full of new Sempervivum and Jovibarba seedlings. My iris visitors just laughed at having to row out anything so tiny in that quantity. We are having wonderful transplanting weather, drizzle and rain and low temperatures, Finally back to a typical Oregon spring after weeks of sun and warm weather and I'm probably the only one in the state that was excited by this cool drizzly weather!. Can't wait for you all to come and help with the selections. out of this many seedlings there should be some good ones. My only disappointments were the few seeds that germinated from cilosium borisii X arachnoideum var. tomentosum and several other potentially interesting crosses. Other crosses gave 100's!

Kevin

Kevin, I was feeling the same way regarding cooler temps here in Seattle, where everyone else is jumping for joy at so much sunshine!

I am also jumping with joy that cool weather is happening while I'm gone. Now I won't worry so much about my new semp beds.

Kevin, do you want pollen or seeds from my rollers this summer. If you want you can even decide on the crosses?

I always get plenty of blooms on my rollers . Maybe it's because they need a good cold winter to inspire them to bloom? Or maybe it's because I let them pile upon themselves for years.

It looks like I'll get some blooms on some of my calcareums too, including Pink Pearl.

Cool! Tabby are you going to try your hand at crossing??

Tabby, how exciting. I've never had Pink Pearl bloom in all the years I've had it. Hope you'll post a photo for us.

Good morning from a very soggy Salem OR!

We are having record cool and moist conditions here this week but the semps actually look pretty happy about it. Certainly for the 3K seedlings that I just rowed out, there couldn't be a better choice of weather. They don't have very big roots as of yet so this sort of constant drizzle will help them get on their feet much more quickly. I do give them a dose of Start N' Grow or one of the other fertilizers for transplants but otherwise not too much until they are a bit more established. After that I give them a shot of the same twice/ month to get them up to size quickly. Seedlings treated in this manner are all forming clumps of rosettes just one year from seed.

The calcareums bloom rarely too. In fact I know Helen only had bloom once or twice on hers. In fact she didn't believe me when I told her I had used calcareum pollen on Cleveland Morgan to get Greenwich Time. Greenwich Time has flowers like calcareum but it does bloom more frequently.

Lynn, your babies in the ground here should be looking really good when then their mom arrives back home! The lawn will be the only problem. this weather makes the grass REALLY grow.

Right now I'm trying to make the final decisions as to which seedlings get named from the 2010 seed crop and which to row out of the 2011 group. They do change so much over the season.

Kevin

Kind of a bitter sweet thing this Sat. I'm looking forward to see my DH and gardens again. Really miss the semps and wonder what they are doing right now. On the other hand I feel sad about leaving Denice and Scott. Wish I could have it all.

Look forward to seeing the seedlings again Kevin. Is there a day next week that would work?