I'll add my experience breeding with the North Hybrids. As Tracey stated, 'Karen North' is mentioned in articles as the most fertile of the group. I tried pollinating it many times, to no avail. But in 2005, I pollinated another North hybrid, 'Eros', with a mix of pollen from various Griesbach tetraploid Asiatics. I got three seed, and one germinated and eventually bloomed. No embryo culture used. I'll upload a picture of both 'Eros' and then two pictures of my hybrid. There is no doubt this one seedling is this cross as stated, as the revolute flowers, statuesque inflorescence, and fine spotting of lankongense and its North hybrid offspring all came though. It has persisted all these years in my garden, even as all the North hybrids are long gone. I have in turn pollinated my hybrid ten different years again with mixes of pollen from Griesbach tet Asiatics. A dribble of seed resulted each year, most of which I kept throwing in the freezer. In 2019 I tried this cross again and got back nearly 100 decent looking seed. So this winter I finally pulled all of the seed out of the freezer from all the crosses made with it, bulked the seed and sowed. I now have a flat with close to 250 seedlings up. Success! I'll report out as these bloom in 2-3 years. The lankongense traits will of course be even further diluted out. But the decent fertility from my hybrid is a good reason for any of you still growing the North hybrids to keep pollinating away on them! It just takes one seed...
'Eros'
