Daisy.. I love the color of Mango Mojito when the sun hits it just right
it opens with the line and speckle pattern on the falls as it does come from Joe's lines ..I like to think of it as a tropical orange which are rare I get lots of muted oranges/peaches but not the bright ones that's what I'm after
Tom.. It has been tough to get much done with it Sergey grows fine but is not a steady bloomer every year but incredible in Oregon really stands out in the rows very different colors and love how it fades on a stem very unique. I do have some good seedlings from it but not the easiest of parents either have made lots of crosses with it and most don't take.
Andrea.. There still pretty new at this point but definitely a couple of them check all the boxes but for plants Im guessing there maybe 10-12 of some of them others maybe less so will be quite a while before they get to that point .. the process I use is when a seedling blooms and its marked to save that 1st year its normally dug and divided, lined out and let set for 2 years so I can see numerous plants of the seedling in a 2 year clump.. if its re selected again from there.. the process repeats dig/ divide/ line out let set for another 2 years and then hopefully make a choice to keep going with it or discard on some plants that increase extremely fast might have enough in 6 years but others may take a few more our growing season is much shorter then the west coast and winters can be brutal..
Lyn.. Hybridizing is a bit like that anymore the pedigrees are complex and if your using the newest of plants anything is possible I do make some crosses looking for colors but mostly breed the form and stalks and select the colors from what blooms from there.
On the 12-12 cross you asked about it is a good example of just that both parents are a heavy mix of Barry Blyth plants and you can get anything from his when they bloomed I was amazed at all the different color variations and patterns that came out of it don't remember the exact number but probably 60-70 bloomed and I kept 15 or so for awhile all were good growers but have now narrowed it down to the 3 that were named and 1 more that is a good possibility we will go through all of them soon
On the seeds mine are greenhouse grown so things are done to get them prepared for that .. to get them to germinate you need to get the seed inhibitor off of them I put mine in the jewelry mesh bags that are bought on amazon and soak them in a couple 5 gallon buckets of water for 2 weeks .. water is dumped every few days and repeated they are then wrapped in a paper towel and baggie placed in the fridge until there ready to plant mine go to the greenhouse the 1st week in January before we leave for vacation and will start to germinate in February when the heat gets cranked up by mid march when its 90's in there they really pop .. the heat is what brings them on there watered and fertilized just like the other annuals growing in there and by the time I get them out of there and planted in May they have excellent root structures and nice little bulbs to line out this helps speed the process up so I can see many more of them bloom the following spring.
This process can be done in a heated garage or basement I found this out the hard way in 2022 we got back March 4th from vacation and the next day a tornado hit and destroyed the greenhouse where my seeds were growing .. got the call from friends at 930 at night that it got leveled but my pots were fine as they were under the benchs and not affected but you better come get them now if you want them to live its going to be 20 degrees tonight
welcome back to Iowa so I moved truckloads of plants to my garage that night luckily its heated so we were able to keep them alive and I then invested in some of the High tech Led grow lights and kept them going until May .. your now looking at seedling pictures from some of those pots they were my 21 crosses so it can be done that way too but I was not happy with the propane bill.
On holding pots over I have done that and yes they will germinate if you have the patience when I make my tags for the pots its noted with the cross number and number of seeds so when planting if the cross is something I think will be really good and less then half germinate I may hold it but rare most of the time I dump the pot right after the nametag and let them germinate in the ground between Dad and I we can have over 300 crosses some years and I don't like to babysit pots not enough hours in the day during summer months .. Hope this helps with yours even if you put them in pots and set them outside soak them for a couple weeks 1st to get seed inhibitor off you will have more luck.
Another very early seedling group that were bright that I liked
21-227 (Fire Danger X Volcanic Glow)
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