How are the pods coming along down there? Has the weather been good?

Quite a few pods here Lorn.. Weather has been strange , but not too bad

Glad you got some hybridising spirit back, Anthony.

I've started harvesting a few pods, but most of them seem to be taking forever! Particularly as many of the earlier asiatic stems have died off already... but there are the pods just sitting there not getting any drier! Has it always taken this long or am I too impatient? Agree that the weather is peculiar. A few aphids have appeared on pods and I'm squashing them as I see them.

Yr' too impatient 'girl'..I've only harvested 1 Asiatic cross , so far.. Ive a couple of mean 'watermelons' on some of the backcrosses , that Judith was fascinated with & some Redback Trumpet Golds .. Seedlings .. Traceys/Ricks & Connies ,fill the back canopy of the truck & all are thriving at rapid speed .. Polybox check of last years seedlings , 'a few good bulbs of Oysteins , Elegan x.. being 1, Lots of Traceys bulbs, and a couple of full losses 'Them's the brakes' sometimes.. I put Adrian V K's Pillow-white Trumpet seedling onto 'Airdrop/Hrts Desire, Champ.. Good seeds & 100% germination.. Hoping this is going to be a 'killer'. Mid March & I found a 'Scarlett Delight' about to bloom in 'Vortex 2'.. .. I know a lady who would love this , as well as 'Hot Chocolate' Calla's Saddening day for me, as the trustees finalisation came through today. Im a rich man ! - or am I ? anyway , I must not dwell & move along with life.. Take care everybody

It's treasuring your good memories, and enjoying the life you live, that makes you rich!

While I'm impatiently waiting for pods to ripen, here's a pic of my favourite pod:

This is on Tall Boy... looks like it could be a good one. I hope!

And this amazes me:



as does this:



The first is Joe Hoell's Regal Star, the second is Yelloween. Both cut stems I was given from the Claremont Show. I had them in bottles side by side outdoors in my nursery where they flowered for weeks. What amazes me is that almost every bloom on each stem wants to set seed. I removed most from Regal Star to see if it had enough juice to mature a few pods, but left Yelloween alone. That fat pod on Regal Star was an unopened secondary bud when the stem was cut! Will it hold good seed? Is Yelloween the dad? Seems incredible that a stem could produce seed months after being cut. I just recently added some 'food' to their water when it seemed like they really were going to fill out with good seed. Well, Yelloween probably not unless the oldest pod manages it, but Regal Star might make it....

Magic water, Della. That's got to be it!
Maybe you should market that!

But honestly, that is more than amazing.
How often have you been changing the water and recutting the stems?
And these have been out in the sun? How warm do you guess the water has gotten?
Well water or water from the municipality?

That Tallboy is going to be 'GOOD' , Della .. I still have not cleared some from the flower show, but got the same as you .. seed pods on bottled leftovers.. I thought it must have been potted As I also have Oriental potted' s in there , but No.. Had a laugh , when I saw your post

You too, Anthony? Bottled pods!

Here's the magic water, Rick:


mmhhmmm... tasty!

It's rain water and certainly gets warm. Really warm to the touch, so I guess it passes the baby bottle test and reaches body temp at least. The bottles have been sitting out in the sun. I've never cut the stems or changed the water! (Can you guess? ) Topped it up once in a blue moon though.

Last week I added a little dilute seasol and powerfeed.

How have you been treating yours, Anthony?

Overnight some evil in the darkness decided to munch one of the five Regal Star pods. It was sticking over the chicken wire. Silly me. Can't see embryos - too opaque and green? - but other than that the immature seed looks good, I think. Oh, and this is the leaf condition of Regal Star, too;



Here's a group photo of my bottle pods. Sunny Crown is trying to set some too but unlikely they will mature. All stems just over 2 months since cutting;

Try the potato Della!

Ahh! Yes, I put the pods that I removed from Regal Star in a spud. No photos of that though. I hope it works!

Rain water! That might explain it.

It's likely that the lack of nutrients to support bacterial, algal or fungal life saved you. I am assuming the bottles are narrow necked? Otherwise dust flying in should have been enough to start the tree of life in the water. The seasol and powerfeed might be your downfall. Now you might need to start changing the water and re cutting stems.

Seed seems good to me, too.

Lilium michiganense

G;day Della, bad luck losing one of those pods on (Joe's) Regal Star.Pity about the foliage on this clone, mine are the same. Btw. it seems Joe also gave away a sibling of Tall Boy rather than the original.By the look of yours, you have nothing to worry about and use it as though it is both 2n and 4n.I had suspicions of mine and JB was in the same boat.You may check with him regarding his conversation with Joe re this aspect.
What pollen did you use on those stigmas carefully protected with foil?Have you done any back crosses with Tall Boy to some of the clones with 82111?

Mine are still bottled up in the canopy of the truck ,Della..

A standout in the garden this summer was Niel Jordan's oriental ''Cam Alpha''. Very healthy, good foliage, excellent form and of course looking pretty fertile.It's pollen was used on my best white speciosum seedling and my other white oriental seedlings.Another few years will tell.

Leftwood said:Rain water! That might explain it.

It's likely that the lack of nutrients to support bacterial, algal or fungal life saved you. I am assuming the bottles are narrow necked? Otherwise dust flying in should have been enough to start the tree of life in the water. The seasol and powerfeed might be your downfall. Now you might need to start changing the water and re cutting stems.

Egads! I never thought about that!

The bottles are narrow-necked. Gah.


Hi Paul! Nice to have another opinion on the Tall Boy. JB told me about his experience with the not Tall Boy Tall Boy, I guess Joe was a funny bugger at times, and near enough was good enough. It would be hard to have enough of the really good stuff to share around, but still, it would have helped to mention when it wasn't the real thing but a close relative instead! I'm really grateful to whomever was the anonymous donor of this bulb. It's an amazing plant. Not without flaws (the colour fades easily and the stem is floppy at the top under the influence of all those buds!) but the breeding possibilities are so exciting!

I tried alot of different pollen on it, not being sure if it's 2n or 4. Let's see... I tried Cam Alpha (and the reverse), Leslie Woodriff, (Joe's) Regal Star, a range of speciosum (and the reverse), all the pollens I shared with you, Joy Hawley, Golden Beauty and a few other oriental and aurelian hybrids.

And I tried pollen from this beauty from Doug and Christine Fielding:



Which seems to have been the only pod to take. Funny how Tall Boy will respond with upturned ovaries to absolutely anything - or nothing, I checked! At first I thought "Wow - this will take pollen from anything, I'm going to be swimming in seed!" Then I realised they were empty and all just for show.

edit: No, haven't tried any backcrosses.

Anthony - does this mean you haven't unpacked Lily-lugger since the show!? :D

Yes , Della, Im a lazy sloth! Rodrigos hasn't unpacked any of his yet either.[no I unpacked yesterday , but alas[the truck vortex] is full of seedling pots again. Della I did quote tonight, on[''OFFYOUR FACE BOOK''], I did get 2 bulbs from Tallboy x Lavender Frost, from about 25-30 seeds planted.. WAR on all damn blackbirds & you must have sent some of your 'hip hop' hoppers up to here..