Well, I am discovering something as I am growing about some of my seedlings .....
Many of the pretty faces seem to have low rust resistance.....
Dragonfly Dawn (one of my favorites!!) does show less than desirable rust resistance. I think every seedling I've grown from it as a parent shows some degree of rust. (Several of my seedlings are DD x DD crosses.) Most are in the 2.0 -3.0 range. Which is discerning for me because I love, love, love that cultivar. Now my direction will be to cross some of the children with highly rust resistant cultivars (or seedlings) to maintain a pretty face AND better rust resistance.
I am also finding that a number of spider cultivars that are used as parents are showing fairly good rust resistance. I don't know if the thinner leaves has anything to do with that or not. But that has been very encouraging to me!
I am NOT yet discouraged from my favorite pretty faces, but I do keep in mind whenever I acquire seeds, that I must lower my expectations of some of the more attractive blooming cultivars! It's going to take crossing them with some highly rust resistant cultivars (or some of my good rust resistant seedlings) to make them more acceptable to me to create nice foliage and the lovely blooms I really want .... without a chemical treatment program .....because I will only grow organically.
