Jo Ann,
This started in Polly's yard in 1986 when she was trying to convince me that 'Siloam Tiny Tim' was showing blue in its eye zone. I made crosses with it that year and the first generation progeny had much more blue in the eye zone. 13 generations I'm STILL working on it.
As in blue semps, blue is an optical illusion created by green throat plus purple eye zone plus white watermark all laid perfectly on top of each other and in exact ratio. I have expanded the eye out onto the petal and gotten the eye itself pretty blue. It's no delphinium but MUCH closer than when I started. When I get it, the plant will be named for Polly, who had the vision WAY BACK then.
Of course semps use different elements, such as wax, a soft green and a little anthocyanin to create blue. As in daylilies, if you mess with the ratios you get greens or purples.
Kevin
