I am pleased with these two which represent small yet important steps forward in my applique program...
While I am mainly working away from purple with appliques, I did do one cross with purple last year. This is a FFE from that cross and it is being dramatic by going poly. What has got my attention is the spackled applique on the sepals. That is pretty unique-- in fact I don't recall ever seeing that before...
I am also working a bit on pinks and this 6" tet has several nice qualities including and especially a very good 4-way scape.
(morning photo)
But here is a subsequent bloom, at end of day, and it's not so nice, and so the hybridizer consternations and conundrums continue...
I actually did one dip cross last year
Morning
Late afternoon
This 7" bloom actually looks pretty decent faded
This has been such a strange year. First, spring sickness the worst ever. Now I am seeing blotchy blooms to an almost unbelievable extent. Even blooms known to be resistant show it terribly. I blame the Canadians. I experienced weeks of smoke haze here from the Canadian wildfires. We even had air quality warnings. I am certain the smoke landed on developing buds and created blotches. A little-known danger of second-hand smoke! LOL!
