Yes, that last seedling I showed is scented, but I wouldn't say it is fragrant. It has a clean scent, and therefore a hint of what most roses have, but really nothing more. I equate it to the clean cloths scent you can buy for your laundry. Not bad, but not what I expected either.

The others of Connie's I posted are nicely fragrant, and not overpowering like some trumpets can be, IMO.

Then there's me, the more overpowering the scent, the more I love it .

Me too. I picked a Stargazer out of my granddaughters cutting garden (don't tell her for heavens sake), and it perfumed my husbands office for almost a week. The thing was dying, and he's saying, no no, don't take it away.

I love the strongly scented ones.

You've gotten some beauties from the Sim mix Tracey. Can you cross one OT with another? I'm tempted to give it a try.

Susan

The simple answer is it isn't easy. Can it be done? Yes. It is highly dependent on the numbers of chromosomes present, especially in the pollen parent. The best possibility for crossing an OT(pod parent) would be with what is called a tetra trumpet (for the pollen). Even then, success can be less than you'd think. It's much more fun to start with crosses that are likely to be successful, such as trumpet to trumpet or asiatic to asiatic. It really is rewarding work and it doesn't take all that long from seed to bloom.

Tracey, is that how you get OT seeds that don't require embryo rescue?

Yes. A good way to see what pod parents might be successful is to look at the NALS seed exchange. I am by no means any expert.

Here's a first bloom for me on a trumpet Herald Angel x Emerald Angel

And the reverse..

Craziest thing is that I didn't even realize these were coming on to bloom.

Seedling of mine from an open pollinated Louis XIV. Very henryi-esque, don't you think?

Mags, I like your green Herald Angel x Emerald Angel. Did you get the seeds from NALS or is it one of your own crosses?

Lefty and Mags, thanks for posting my crosses . Also, just so you know, it doesn't hurt my feelings a bit if you cull my seedlings. In fact, I like to hear about that too, and of course your reasons why. It is all useful information not just for me, but for anyone who tries hybridizing their own lilies.

I'm culling a number of my own this year. I need the room to work on what I hope will be better stuff!

Yes, that one definitely looks like it has L. henryi somewhere in its background!

The Herald Angel cross was from Lisa

Ah, yes. I recall she offered that one.

pardalinum said: it doesn't hurt my feelings a bit if you cull my seedlings.

Actually, I already did last fall. I kept what I deemed the best, and ones that hadn't bloomed yet. Really, there wasn't a bad one in all your (four) lots that I got, just better ones. On most, I looked for clean colors, crisp color dilineations on petal backs, and graceful flower forms. There was a lot of variation in the reverse color intensity and fuzzy vs. crisp color dilineations. But some clearly were not in that vain, and the color blending was a definitely pleasing. Within each lot, I really didn't see any difference in foliage type or quality.
The extra bulbs all went to very eager recipients, and at this moment I am getting even more praise for giving the bulbs to them, now that they are blooming. They were quite large bulbs. And I can still visit them anytime I want...
----
Okay. My first installment of my own crosses. And it's a . . . . . . .

mix up!

I knew I might have gotten a couple seed lot names mislabeled after I had collected them. I was being so careful, and when it came time to package the dried seeds, I came upon a conundrum: two lots of seed had the same label ???

Well, no one is perfect.

So I made my best guess, and what I thought was going to be an aurelian cross turned out to be pure species - Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii. So I now have a field of them in miniature in my garden, and I should have bulbs to give away this fall.

Three of the pots I never planted out, and this is what I see outside my kitchen window:

Here's the first bloom on another Am. west cross from pard. 2007 started. b orientation.

It's nice having several blooming seedlings this year. And I am enjoying the pictures on this thread very much. Please keep sharing.

Ice Caves x Ortega

From a cross made in 2008.
Madame Butterfly (the aurelian cultivar) x White Henryi

Not really an exciting combination as the parents are fairly similar, but it's what was available to cross at the time, and really I did it for giggles and experience, rather than a possible wow factor. Still, preliminary results are quite encouraging.

First, they are incredibly hardy. The bulbs were in pots (3 to a 3x5" pot) the first year (2009). I had planned on putting them in the garden at a respectable fall date, but then I ended up needing minor back surgery at the end of September. No gardening for me! Plan B was to overwinter the pots with my other potted materials, but when the time came in late November, there was not room for all my lily seedlings in my specially protected wintering boxes. So this "unexciting" cross finally did get planted in the garden, about Thanksgiving time. They were late in coming up the following (this) year, but rebounded remarkably well. Not even one bulb was lost. While none produced any stem growth last season, all are producing 3-5 flowers this year.

Petal form seems to be uniformly intermediate throughout the seed lot. (Madame Butterfly is fully recurved, and White Henryi is partially recurved.) But there seems to be some gene grouping going on in this cross. I have two basic types.

Type #1 opens soft orange and has no papillae or fimbriate projections, with fairly uniform central spotting among the seedlings.

Petal backs are a similar color with green midribs.