72 pots of new Oriental Trumpet OT seedling crosses planted this weekend. 72 pots of asiatic lily seedlings to go.

This group of photos is pink and/or red brushmarked or tango lily seedings.

Wowza... If you find the need to get rid a couple Especially the first four and the dark one.

And a couple pix I just came across of my first pink/white tango seedling when it flowered in 2001 and 2002

Nice assortment, I think my favorites are 1st, 5th, and last.

Wow more excellent stuff Hank! I'm especially partial to the light pink with the creamy brush marks. I've never really seen lighter brush marks. Amazing.

Joe,

It really isn't a brushmark (my cheat). The lily just happens to have a lack of pink pigment in the area of the flower where a brushmark might have appeared. Note the small spots towards the center of the flower. That would be the true color of the 'missing' brushmark.

The other pink lily with it in the photo, the one with the darker brushmark, is a sibling.

Lots of nice patterns there, Hank. Your last pink/white tango has a nice inflorescence too.

Holy frijoles! Way too many to mention but the first and last have really caught my eye.

More and more candy! Wow.

Holy Fruitcake, Hank I especially like 13

Lots and lots of beautiful flowers, Hank. Over the years, you've grown many thousands of seedlings. How do you deal with culls along the way--especially those later culls of (n +4,5,6, etc.). If they're healthy, do you donate them for park use, etc.? Keeping your plant counts down to a manageable level with your seemingly limited space must be quite a task in itself. How do you manage all that?

Hank was that light brush mark something you were going for or a freak mutation?

Lots of really nicely colored and dotted patterns. Liking your work a lot.

Lorn, Some of the culls are just given away. Many are culled by events beyond my control.
►There were a couple of years that the lilies were just shredded by hailstorms.
►Then there's the moles and voles (pretty well under control now due to the neighborhood population of feral cats).
► Then there's the feral cats. They use the lily gardens as a giant litter box. They can dig surprisingly large holes and can damage quite a bit in the process.
►Then there's the squirrels. I keep live trapping and removing them, but it seems like someone is bringing them back. They are amazingly fast diggers and shredder of lily bulbs.
►Then there's the large local rabbit population. Have that under control using vinyl coated chicken wire fencing around all the lilies. Had a couple get past the fence this last summer and it took a while to get them out. They hide very well between the lily pots.
►Then there's just me trying to get too much done, and I've sometimes gotten rid of things I really wanted to keep around.

Lorn, It is a huge task. The large number of new seedlings makes up for the losses. My thought is that my best lilies are alive in the seeds that I have not yet sown. The ones in the past live on in the photos.

Jmorth, Connie, Ken, Moby, Della, Anthony, Tracey

Thanks for the compliments.

Joe,

The light brushmark is really just a central non pigmented area. It is like some of the other pix I posted showing lilies with white centers. It just so happens that this one doesn't extend as far out on the petals, so it looks like the shape of the normal brushmarks. After doing lots of crosses you will have brushmarks made from small spots that look like Tangos, Tangos that look like brushmarks, all sorts of center color flushed lilies. Some of it is predictable, but there will be surprises. I'm not surprised that this one turned up as the parents were a 1a pink with white center tango red spotted lily crossed with a 1a white with heavy dark brushmark. There is a third sibling seedling to these that is a 1a white heavily spotted with dark tango spots, but the form is not that nice.

So the answer is no, I wouldn't call it a freak mutation.

Joe,

Here is an example of the color flushing I mentioned. Both of these are siblings. These are not brushmarks. The only difference is that one has a yellow base with pink pigment overlay (missing the pink pigment in the center), and the other is a white base with most likely the same pink pigmentation and pigment pattern.

I like your philosophy that 'my best plants are alive in the seed I have not yet planted'. How about Asiatic pollen; how long have you kept it frozen and it was still good?

I have never frozen any of my pollen for later use.

Significant other is not impressed that the freezer has been taken over by non-edible lily seeds, let alone using the remaining space for pollen.

There are certain lines that one does not cross. << Not meant to be a hybridizing comment !!

I had to buy my own fridge for lilies!