You could get something very interesting.
They just won't be 'Hot Lips', but maybe even better. Heuffelii 'Better Than Hot Lips'.

Hi friends,

I'm sending a couple photos of the flowers on 'Weirdo'.

First they are very pale flowers, almost tinged with green and the petals are sort of unruly, not the typical flattened form. None of these flowers is symmetrical. Some have a ring of stigmas/ styles that form a triangle, others more a rectangle.

The anthers don't seem to dehisce their pollen or the pollen is itself non-functional as it's a sort of cream instead of yellow. In daylilies, when the pollen looks like that it's NO GOOD. I'm betting the same is true of these.

Bees do seem to think it is a flower and they are visiting the flowers that I haven't covered. Hopefully they'll bring a little pollen over to these flowers to effect some crosses. I've put 'Unicorn' on several flowers of 'Weirdo' and will probably plant even the bee-set seeds as I'm so curious about anything from this plant. It arose in my yard in MA in '73 and this is my first time to see a bloom on it.

Anyway, curiouser and curiouser!

Kevin

I've grown semps since '64 but I have never seen such a huge bloom on a fasciated sempervivum. This is the bloom on a fasciated sport of 'Dark Cloud' that is 8" across and has the coolest helical pattern of flower deposition. Was going to use 'Dark Cloud' in some crosses for its other attributes but I think that this plant might be lots of fun. Most of the fasciated semps I've seen are smallish ones whereas this is HUGE.

Enjoy!

Kevin

Sighhhhhhhh, I am so happy to see those photos Kevin.
The Weirdo bloom petals look like they have bed head, mussed up hair.

Can you explain to us what dehisce means?

Wow, and double wow on the fasciated sport of 'Dark Cloud'. I can't even imagine what that must look like in person.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that both semps produce viable seed.

Those are some mighty strange flowers on' Weirdo'. And your fasciated 'Dark Cloud' is awesome! I need to get an updated picture of my crested 'Purple Passion' too. That also is getting quite large.

Wow! Some really weird and wonderful blooms there!

Mine are of the normal variety, but I thought I'd share

From a NOID semp



I have lots of others about to open in the next few days so more pics to follow.

The silverline that I did surgery on is just starting to re grow, but it looks like all flower heads. But my grey ghost is coning in a very impressive manner. I'm going to try some silverline/grey ghost crosses to see if I can get some even bigger and even more distinctive grey semps from the seed

Grey ghost

Very pretty little pink flowers Kate. Grey Ghost is a monster!

Dehisce is the word used to describe the pollen breaking out of the anther. Generally there is a suture line that pops open and the pollen comes out of that point. When you see the yellow pollen at the tip of the anthers, the pollen has dehisced. Actually if 'Weirdoi' doesn't have functional pollen it makes life easier in crossing too! No need to remove those pesky anthers!

'Weirdo' actually was from seeds planted in '69 and were tiny seedlings in '70. Sorry about the '73 date. I sent it to Helen that spring to introduce. It came up in a pot of a selfed flower head of 'Emerald Spring' but I think it was from a stray seed that stuck to the juicier Jovibarba stalk. All the rest looked like typical hirtas. For a while I thought it might be from 'Emerald Spring' X a sempervivum as the growth pattern was so bizarre but I did have a similar seedling from straight Sempervivum crosses too.

Kevin

Thanks for the definition - I'm learning a lot from you.

I think the semp's are so pretty in bloom it's a shame they die afterward! I guess if they didn't we would spend a lot of time thinning them out!!
I am very jealous of all the semp's blooming & standing so straight.We have had so much rain & wind along with it that when the parent plant started a lot of the blooms got knocked off by the hard down pours & we also haven't had much sun. But here's the pictures i have.

My offsets bloomed first,before the rains got to be daily & nightly.
Then the parent plant started to show buds.

That's pretty normal for the offset blooms to lay at an angle. But just look at that wonderful bloom stalk on the parent rosette. It's lovely Jelinda.

Thank you for the explaination of dehisce. You are such a great teacher Kevin.

All this rain seems to have forced alot of stalks and blooms I hadn't noticed before....
today

Pacific Sparkler


Bronco

Beautiful blooms Janice. And they show two different bloom colors.

For mine it is the intense sun and no moisture that seems to be making them come to bloom.
Saturn


Regal


Pacific Plum Fuzzy


Pacific Blazing Star


Henglehoef

Saturn has a unique color bloom - pretty!

Janice, when we had all our rain it seemed to trigger coning too, but they haven't slowed down now with our increasing heat either.

Thanks, Lynn and Chris!

Lynn, such pretty blooms - Henglehoef looks like an intense color!

Chris, yes! I have never seen so much coning and blooming!

Maybe all the rain makes them think they are about to die, so need to produce seed?

Saturn really is an odd color, very different from the rest. Henglehoef is a small semp, seem to me that many of the tiny ones have intense flower color.

Flamingo has a soft pink color.


erythraeum has almost white petals that are long and slender.

Very beautiful!

Thank you Julia. The beds are full of blooms, and I still haven't made a decision on which ones to cross.

I think it's amazing looking at these blooms how all of them are so alike but so different.The flower is the same but such a variety of colors.
ALL BEAUTIES.
I hope rain won't trick them into blooming because i will have all mine blooming soon.I noticed my black looked different, keeping an eye on him(yes he's a guy)



Notice all the centers have suddenly turned red even on the offsets.Does anyone have any of his brothers to compare their S.'black' against mine,or can anyone say if this is what he does in the summer.Is it normal for the parent plant & all offsets to have the same change in color like that?

Click the pictures the dates are fairly correct.It changes a lot in a short period of time.

Good question about the color change and the off sets. I need to go look at mine. Funny how the mother plant and chicks are so linked together they trigger the same color change.