Yes, very sorry, Mike, Adeniums have not reached the same breeding pinnacle as zinnias or petunias, you simply do not get what the parents look like. Reds and whites are beginning to come true from seed. Sellers on Ebay and other places can get away with deception and downright thievery because it takes a year or so for the plants to bloom. There are only beginning to be yellows, and blue just isn't happening, although Choochart of Siam Adeniums hopes for a blue next year. That first blue will be a $50,000 plant! He has a number of commercial breeder/growers in his 'stable', and they collectively plant tens of thousands of seeds every year. No joke. They're in Thailand, where growing conditions for A.obseum are nearly perfect, and hired help costs about $2 a day.
My first seedlings from double parents are beginning to bloom. I planted these seeds in February. The first three have been nice variations of pink. One is a naturally well branched plant with seventeen blossoms in the first cluster, hey! A keeper! Oops, no photo.
I asked the folks on the Yahoo Adenium Group, and they all agreed that you get about a 10-to-12% rate of double flowers from two double parents.
OK, enough for bad news. A 99% germination is amazing!
I'll be posting more photos soon of the kids that I started this thread with, wowee, about time, hey? I cannot find plain old kitty litter boxes, they're all jazzed up machines now-a-days, it seems. I have used storage boxes, but the plastic goes brittle and the boxes fall apart within months, booooooooooooooo:
I just ordered 200 seeds from Mr Ko, 100 red and 100 white. Not very exciting, but they are donations to the Botanical Gardens where I volunteer. Folks here don't seem to know much about these plants. It's all still orchids-orchids. Boring!
OK, later, Gaters!
