My problem with White Eyes Pink Dragon is as you said, it seems to bloom a bit later than those early evergreen plants, but it does set pods well here. I will often keep many of my new arrivals potted and will bring them indoors to the air conditioning when it is really hot so that I can use pollen from WEPD when they rebloom late. I actually have some pollen in the freezer, and now have two scapes coming on Ruby Rose, so I'm hoping they don't get frozen in the greenhouse.
Spc Lemon Whiskers is candelabra branched with fantastic bud counts, plus it also reblooms even when it is loaded in pods. The scapes are a bit weak when more than one flower is open- especially if it is raining. They are also quite tall, which doesn't help, but I love it, and it is really hardy here. I have been saving a bunch of seedlings with tree-trunk scapes to cross with it.
Last year I used Master Chief in quite a lot of crosses because I am wanting more reds, and then I also used Grape Umbrella a lot with WEPD and other seedlings that came from it because I am wanting more of the green throats. I have to say that I am more impressed with Galactic Glow with the much deeper green and loaded it with pods two years in a row. I had a higher number that didn't take, but I can't wait to see them. Normally I would have seedlings up in January, but none are up yet so far this year.
I have a plant called Hugh two that is a hard dormant with very husky tall scapes and very large flowers that I have been using for several years, especially for crosses where others don't produce pods. It is not a fancy flower and has no ruffles, but I will use it with some that have too many ruffles, and it seems to be a perfect mix. Rather than having fancy flowers, I am moving more toward good garden plants that produce huge scapes. I have seedlings just now coming up that have an inch or more in diameter. I am slowly eliminating the ones with small frail plants, which was the issue I had with the white teeth plants. I just want them more robust....
