One. Just one? Oy...
Last year my top favorite was Titan of Ice:
Due to a bad windstorm and subsequent rot (i.e. I don't believe the plant or it's genetics were at fault), it died and I had to replace it and I planted it in a different spot. This year, it came out far more yellow than last year and it's blooms were shaped a little more triangularly (not my favorite shape)...so it got knocked down a peg. We'll see how it does next year, though. It's blooms were still HUGE and very fragrant this year, so if it's color lightens and it 'shapes up' (hah!) next year, it might be favorite again.
Soo....
This year it's hard to say. Ruby Spider is among my favorites, but I do wish it's bloom season was a little longer and it didn't set very many pods for me this year. Heavenly Angel Ice should have been poised to be a favorite, but it hasn't shown any signs of rebloom so far and it didn't set ANY pods this year. Symphony of Fire had a great bloom season and I got really excited about it every time it would bloom, although I don't typically think of it as one of my favorites, for some reason it was one of my most anticipated this year, so maybe it is among my favorites and I just don't realize it?
...same thing happened with Spider Man.
Hmm... I think my favorite depends on whether I'm looking at it from a beauty standpoint, in which case my favorite might be a seedling (unregistered) that I have from another hybridizer:
Or if it has to be a registered cultivar, then maybe, based on beauty, I would choose:
Night Embers:
...or Jim's Pick:
or maybe you meant from a hybridizing standpoint (most pod and pollen fertile)?.... which would probably be this one:
...this one I'm also partial to for other reasons, AND I love it's recurved shape, it's color (which changes depending on weather/time of the season), etc.
....so did you REALLY ask us to choose just one? Are you crazy???
Yeah, it's the Pringle effect...you can't stop at just one...
