It is strange as I've been hybridizing for 50 years but I still get excited when the seedlings start to germinate and even more so when they start to have some character to them. The cobwebs always surprise me as they develop their web so early, generally the second set of leaves you can see it. so cool.

Lynn you have a couple interesting ones coming along although I didn't notice any seed pots when i was there. Did yo take '14 off from crossing or collecting seeds?

Kevin

I collected seed, but have not planted it yet. Guess I better get busy.

Since I have seeds from selected semps this year along with Park's grand cross section, I'm noticing something I didn't see last year: Most of the new seedlings before they get their true leaves all seem pretty much alike: fairly delicate little things. The cell pack with Heuf "Bronze Ingot" seedlings are noticeably a darker green, shorter and stockier. Interesting. They are still coming up -- 15 of those now.

I also wonder why the rate of germination for the Silverine seedlings is so very (VERY) much higher!? I'm going to end up thinning them out rather then just dividing them up. They are a solid carpet of green now... Of course it could just be the way the seeds were treated, but still, it's an interesting phenomenon. MR

MR, If this is my seed via Bev it maybe that there was just more seeds in the chaff. Those seeds are so small that you never know what you have in there. I planted mine out in chunks and as they grew divided them more as they go bigger.

MR,

'Silverine' is a very easy parent and makes lots of seed. It also tends to make very good seedlings too. My 'Marshall', 'Ruby Heart', 'Lipstick' and 'Grey Lady' are all from 'Silverine' and my very first cross with it gave my first introduction 'Silvertone'.

Kevin

That's good to know, Kevin, since I have zillions of the little darlings. I should have taken the time to clean the seeds better so I could see what was mixed up in there -- just taking the lazy way out and not realizing I was creating a monster (or a monstrous horde)!

Did you keep track of any of the other parents? Or were these self crosses? And Julia, did you have any idea with your seeds? As far as I know, the Silverine is from you via Bev...

These are just bee crosses so not sure what you will get. I always mean to do some crosses but life seems be get in my way when the darn things bloom. I'm going to try this year.

I figured bee crosses were what you did, Julia -- I'd be incredibly overwhelmed to hear you went through the whole routine Kevin has used to make specific crosses... My two little seed collections are the same bee productions. So we'll just wait and see how these turn out! Thanks. MR

MR,

Some of the crosses with 'Silverine' were hand crosses but I raised a large group of bee set seed from a plant that was adjacent to 'Cleveland Morgan', 'Rubrum Borsch', and calcareum. All three crossed onto the 'Silverine' plant and passed on different traits. 'Silverine' has wulfenii in it so it will give very broad leaves and the lotus form to its seedlings. 'Silvertone' is a cross of 'Silverine' and 'Purdy's 50-5'.

This year I self-pollinated a stalk of 'Silver Song', which was the widest leaved plant of the group, to see if it will give exceptional width. 'Minaret' was the bluest of the 'Silverine' seedlings and it gave rise to the very blue 'Frost and Flame'. A cross of 'Frost and Flame' X 'Pacific Blue Ice' gave some very blue seedlings, perhaps the bluest I've seen. It is fun to finally be able to take these lines to their logical progression after my long hiatus.

Kevin

Kevin, if I were still in my youth I would definitely be a candidate for taking on the procedures you've figured out to control pollination -- and who knows, I may still do it once. Still, my "new normal" doesn't leave as much time as I'd like to have for fussy work: I've done fussier things in the name of previous addictions! Had I had started Park's batch of semp seeds when I was a teenager, who knows where things might have ended up...

MR,

Controlled crossing sounds worse than it is! Here in Salem we rarely have summer rains so I can simply put paper bags on the stalks to prevent insect pollination. It looks a little silly but it works great. About 10 AM each day I go and make all the crosses and slip the bag back on the stalk. I make the same cross over and over and the cross is written on the bag so I don't cross something I'm not supposed to do. This year about 50% of my crosses were controlled self-pollinations, especially on wide crosses like 'Aross'. These sorts of hybrids give segregations for so many different traits that you get all sorts of interesting seedlings.(And of course some not so pretty ones too!)

By the way Bill Nixon started with Park's seed and his first introduction, 'Kismet', is from that seed.

In the early days we raised a lot of bee set seed from the better semps to see which parents were most likely to give good seedlings. That's how we discovered that 'Silverine', 'Cleveland Morgan' and 'Sanford Hybrid' produced nice seedlings consistently.

Kevin

If the seedling I've been using as my "avatar" survives, I should think it would stand a good chance of becoming something special. So we wait and see... (it was .1 below zero this morning so the snow is not going away in a hurry!)

Good thing they love a cozy warm blanket of snow.

I thought it was supposed to rain today, instead i is really snowing. The weather gurus say it will go on all day. But then dry out again by the weekend. So it goes... So MR, I think your constant cold and snow is better than this up and down stuff.

Aww, Marilyn!!! So sorry to hear. When I was living in NM and planting wasn't done till May, I did indoor gardening with my frames...but that was several years ago...

Too dry inside to grow much and no room ........ Oh well, it will be REAL spring soon or it may move right into summer. I did buy a couple new containers. Pictures when I decide where to put them. The thought is that if I need to move my Semps from out front to patio, I needed a place to put them. Right now the containers will stay in the trunk of my car until I get things cleaned up on the patio. --- when I can find some help to shift things.

it's 51 degrees outside!!! It was only 4 this morning, but they say it won't freeze tonight, so perhaps spring is coming even here. It has a ways to go yet -- but at least by tomorrow all the snow should be gone from our roofs... I haven't been out yet today to check the drifts on top of my semps... maybe if it really does rain (and not snow) tomorrow even they will be gone?

Let's hope. Almost all of the little semp seedlings are starting to show true leaves -- of course you can't see them without a jeweler's loupe or magnifying glass yet, but they are there. I don't like to start moving them around until those leaves show,
but soon I'll start spreading out the ones that turned out to be really thick (i.e. Silverine babies).

Happy feast of the Annunciation, for those of you who keep it!

MR,

The old rule of thumb we used was "after two sets of true leaves you can move them". Mine started outdoors are almost to this stage in many of the pots. The heuffelii ones are probably the furthest along. Be sure to keep them moist when transplanting as they have very small roots. It's a stage where you can lose them if they dry out. It's a fine line between MOIST and TOO WET however. The later will make them rot. Outdoors this is more a concern than in your indoor conditions.

Good luck with the babies!

Kevin

The 2012/2013 seedlings are finally looking like something. Would probably been at this level last year if I fertilized and took better care of them.


This one is turning out to have some nice cobwebs. They should increase with drier weather.


This heuffelii is getting to be such a lovely soft green with white cilia trim. The little semp seedling to the left will go into the compost pile.

Here is a close up.


I know this one is not pretty, but I do find it to be cute.


More seedlings:


The offsets on this one are coming in red?




Another heuffelii


This one is the same age as the other heuffelii, but has been growing crazy fast. I think it is a seedling of 'Apache'.

Love looking at those. 2nd to the last is beautiful too. Can't wait to see with my own eyes.