Thanks for the suggestions!
You will be happy to know that I rowed out ~2K seedlings yesterday and they are so far looking happy. I hope to get another 1K rowed out this week so we will have PLENTY to evaluate in the clinic next spring. It is a good mix of all colors of semps and heufelliis so it should be a good group to evaluate. We are finally returning to the typical Oregon spring here this week (cool and moist) so it will be a good time to get them in the ground. Also got all the Pacific Coast Native and about half of the Siberian iris seedlings rowed out. I didn't look pretty on Saturday night! Hopefully I'll have that 8" purple cobweb in this group of seedlings!
The rollers are very rare ones to flower. I fact none of mine have flowered in the three years here in Oregon. Maybe they like Seattle beter Greg! Polly Bishop had them in huge clumps so she had blooms each year and it was in her garden that I made the cross that gave 'Emerald Spring'. it's too bad that the hybrids of the rollers X heufelliis are sterile. odd too as the whole group has a single chromosome number. Bringing in some of those characteristics to the rollers would be fun. 'Emerald Spring' will set seed but it makes this very weird snaky stalk. At the time I made the cross sobolifera was a different species, but now it's merely a subspecies of hirta. The seedlings that I raised from 'Emerald Spring' were variable, some favoring the sobolifera side. 'Emerald Fountain' also came from those early crosses with rollers. It has very fine small leaves. I don't have that one any more.
Happy gardening!
Kevin
