Nice one, Anthony, and Paul... wow! Love those martagon! I prefer pendant lilies too. Be lovely to see a pendant version of Connie's pretty seedling.

We love the seed exchanges here. I'm really happy with the results of Tiny Snowflake x Tiny Athlete; more pretties from the NALS exchange:




I'm using them with my downfacing asiatics too! Maybe get some outfacing potting types, on the way to somewhere interesting in future generations.

dellac said:Nice one, Anthony, and Paul... wow! Love those martagon! I prefer pendant lilies too. Be lovely to see a pendant version of Connie's pretty seedling.

That is exactly what I am working on, Della (in my amateurish way)! 1c tango lilies! I've learned a lot lately, such as... don't bother crossing tango x tango (get little if any seed, in my experience).

Excellent

I used Strawberries and Cream alot last year with my 1c seedlings, and found it wasn't straight forward. Lots of plump pods and good-looking seed, but very low germination. Trying again this year with Crossover, which gave no pods last year, neither as pod nor pollen parent. But still, if I do get some promising flowers down the track I'll share some pollen.

Oh, I find it curious how the spreckle pattern extends to the ovary on tangos, too.

Della, try using your tango pollen on non-tango 1b to 1c Asiatics. I got tango pattern from Citronella x Latvia. Not totally pendant but 1 b-c. This was the best of several similar seedlings, the others were culled.

I found ,Strawberries & Cream , to be a junker , about 5 years ago.. even the bulbs didn't last!.. Della , I will go 1 better, I will have a bulb for you of that ornately delicate 1c, [Hudsons] & you were so correct , with Tesslars diseased bulbs, Ive now binned about 40. Mapira was woeful,,. but noticing other stuff too ! What Connie has there is close to Grenadier [1B/C].. If you have any grenadier seedlings , use it , It is so potent!.. [Hoping Tracey or Oystein] can post some PIC seedlings of its cross soon!.. I am doing 'vicious culling ' this year, so if you have any room for Joe Halinars Nutmegger experiments , Come and get them , I have about 30 pots

I'd love that Hudson's bulb. Have to pay you a visit soon. I'm on my second year with Strawberries and Cream and it's a shadow of itself from last year - will see how long it lasts. Agree, Mapira was disappointing.

Thanks for the tip, Connie. Looks like a promising start.

Here's My Joanne flowering this year, in a pot, but stuck in a garden bed under development, to test the wildlife and so I can pretend I have a garden full of lilies . Crotchety hoppers bit off the shorter stem-bulblet flowers.

It's funny. I'm interested in 1c tangos as well! Hopefully we can get something nice in the future.

Strawberries and Cream lasted only two seasons for me. Such a pretty lily but what a waste! I really need some new parent material here... otherwise I am just doing the same ol', same ol' crosses. OK... back to our Aussie thread...

Strawberries and Cream, one of the few cultivars I bought, did poorly for me also. So poorly that I surmise it was infected by viruses or some kind of pathogen(s) (but there was not outward signs) and it went in the garbage.

Using tangos as pollen parents is the way to go. With lilies in general, more expressed genes for floral characteristics will come from the male gamete than the female's. Of course, there will always be variation, and not all offspring will have tango-like patterns. A representative sampling of
Lilium davidii var. willmotiae x Lilium 'Olina':
X =

I like this one Rick.

Leftwood said:With lilies in general, more expressed genes for floral characteristics will come from the male gamete than the female's.

That's a good way of puting it.

Strawb'n'Cream.. Sounds like there's no hope then. I was in the same position, Connie, so last year I bought in a lot of commercial varieties. Strawberries and Cream was one of them. It was interesting, seeing the range of lilies that are popular in commerce now. (I wonder how popular they really are with gardeners... or are they just earning lilies a trash reputation?) Disappointing too... and turned up little of real value to me in breeding stock. If I had more patience I could have just waited for more exchange seed to grow and flower, but on the other hand I've learned alot.

....Such as... most commercial varieties aren't worth bothering with. If they can be mass-produced they are probably riddled with virus (wait - should that be virii? )

Della, I always say, 'a good lily is where you find it'. Which gets pretty hard from time to time, especially for those like you who's interests has outrun the commercial side of things. You've got to remember, that most commercial lilies are just variations of those designed for forcing and the cut flower industry side of things. Those bulbs are discarded after blooming and so any interest in longevity is secondary and anything with long pedicels with 'b' or 'c' orientation won't package and ship well. We're lucky here to have somebody like Judith Freeman at The Lily Garden who still breeds for garden features and quality, and also Lynnette Westfall at Valley K who markets many varieties from Canadian hybridizers. Expanding one's horizons globally with other lily hybridizers has broadened my reach for pollen and seed.

Because "virus" is an English word taken from Latin, as opposed to a Latin word use in English, the plural form is "viruses".
Don't laugh! I mean what I say. Example of:
1 --- A Latin word used in English: Sapien means wise.
2 --- An English word taken from Latin: The phenomenon is most intriguing. ("Phenomenon" is taken from the Latin word: "phænomenon".)

Now since the word "virus" is unchanged in its transition to English, technically, one would only know you would be using it in the first scenario by your pronunciation, in which case, technically the plural would be "vira". But, in the original Latin, "virus" was a word with a slightly different meaning, and was not counted, so a plural form was nonexistent and not necessary. (Similar to "air" in English.) " Virii" comes from the word's (widely accepted) erroneous gramatical placement in Latin that would dictate an "i" ending to signify plural.
--- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

dellac said:....Such as... most commercial varieties aren't worth bothering with. If they can be mass-produced they are probably riddled with virus.

Well, I do get the idea that if I really want a particular cultivar, I should buy it early on in the marketing, or from someone whose stock is from that era. I do see a lot of cultivars of lilies coming through the Home Depot stores that I am impressed with.

dellac said:



....Such as... most commercial varieties aren't worth bothering with. If they can be mass-produced they are probably riddled with virus (wait - should that be virii? )

Imagine a small subcontracted farmer with 100 acres worth of dug lily bulbs in crates that 'The Company' says has PlMoV and are currently on reject status, what would you suppose the most likely outcome might be? Scrap them at a huge loss, negociate to sell for less to try and break even, or, try and pedal them to somebody else on the sly. The doors open for hot potatoes to get passed around and money talks. It's almost like a game some enjoy, about who can get away with something over somebody else. After all, it is now pretty well established that PlMoV was known to exist as early as 2007 in Holland, yet this information was tightly held in confidence until all the fields were cleared in 2010. Then the information was published.

But, Della--you shouldn't let the fear of virus deter you from buying a public commercial lily for the purpose of hybridizing. You just have to be extra careful in how you deal with it--which is not impossible. I have two plants with virus growing off site at a non-gardeners place now that I'm trying to get all the pollen and seed from that I can before it dies. As a precaution, plant all newly purchased stock in isolation until you're convinced it's OK.

Roosterlorn said:Rick, if you were a small subcontracted farmer with 100 acres worth of dug lily bulbs in crates that 'The Company' says has PlMoV and are currently on reject status, what would you suppose the most likely outcome is? Scrap them at a huge loss, negociate to sell for less to try and break even, or, try and pedal them to somebody else on the sly.

Not sure what you are getting at here: what would I do, or what would they do?
I'm not like the general society today and don't sleep well if I do something wrong, or even if I am unjustly accused of doing something wrong. Heck, it's now a very rare thing that I correct any factual information in the data base or in forums here (except the Lilies forum). People just get mad if their misinformation is exposed. I sleep much better just letting that be. The alternative is spending an hour crafting an ever so gentle reply to correct a fact, and then get an angry retort or just ignorance, and I lay awake at night totally disgusted.

My point in that post is that, if I gather the ideas here correctly, cultivars have a greater probability as time progresses of becoming corrupted or having imposters, and/or becoming virused. The older a cultivar is, the more careful one must be, and the more important it is to buy from reputable growers.

Rick, it's what 'they' do, i.e. what goes on. I addressed it to you as if we were having a private conversation and was meant to lend credence to Della's statement and not meant to infer any type of behavior on your part, but food for thought. I can see where it could be interpreted the wrong way. I'll reword that introduction. Thanks for pointing it out. I think your post above is exceptionally well said and a model for all of us to live by.

Rick, you can correct away as much as you like here. It's gold.

There were several catalogues that advertised Scheherezade here this year. I really really had to sit on my hands. Such a fantastic lily from Judith Freeman, and for all I know, never offered before in Australia... but for it to be offered suddenly by so many nurseries at once, it had to have come wholesale from Holland. So many reasons not to buy it. Not just almost certain infection, but the fact (I presume) that Judith would never see a cent from tens of thousands of sales.

Lorn, I'll have space here to isolate newcomers, but still, I think I'll be rather picky about what I buy. On the other hand, given that viruses have already come in on last year's purchases, (and are such a part of life anyway), I'm more concerned with growing resistant and/or tolerant garden lilies. I just don't want to waste my time with cut-flower genetics. Unless it's alstroemeria

Anyway, here's a seedling I'm happy with, and its sibling:



Now in their ninth year of flowering, they have nice pedicels and fair foliage. I'm hoping the fact that they've never had more than 8 buds on a stem is due to neglect and the fact I use them relentlessly as pod parents.

They are beautiful! The second picture reminds me a bit of one of Bill Cramer's lilies that I adore

I love the compliment.

This is a rather homely lily, but it was one of my first babies. Since it is one of the earlier bloomers for me, I'm always happy to see it:



And it has lead to some interesting seedlings. Here's one - these are the same lily, but the first picture is from last year when it first flowered, the second as it appears today. It's either the child or grandchild of the above lily:



The second flower is nearly three times the size of the first!