Char, the other moderator here, actually know more about the technical aspects of forms than I do... but we have both been interested in a new form where the petals roll back, and the throat area pinches, causing them to stand straight up. I bloomed my first seedling like that over 10 years ago.
@Char will be able to answer this better than I, but I am going to say that your flower may have been on a cold morning? The petals appear to curl IN. Here is a photo I took at Curt Hanson's a couple weeks ago of his cultivar Mother Upduff. If you look closely, you will see that the petals curl out, so that instead of seeing the backside of the petals when they stand up, (where there is little color) you are actually seeing the top side of the petals, curling back upon themselves, so that when they stand up, you get the benefit of seeing the full petal colors and patterns.
While some may consider this trait not very attractive, it's not an opening problem. I believe we will see some very interesting flowers come out of these new forms in the future.
So, Larry, if this upright look appeals to you, there are quite a few registered cultivars that you could start working with and breeding. I am not sure I would start with the flower you posted, though, because of the way the petals curl INwards.
This is a photo of one of my seedlings, of just one petal, close up. You might be able to get the idea of how the petal curls back on itself to show what would normally be the top part of the petal, but it curls around, and shows the color under the backside that stands up. You can actually stick your finger into the little tubes created by the area where the petal curls under. This form is so hard to describe to someone until they can hold one in their hand, and take it apart and see how the petal is formed. Char has taken razor blades and done cross sections of these petals to show what happens inside the petals.
Another member here,
@Sundays, works with these forms too, and she has some interesting photos of the petals torn from the flowers that shows the backsides more clearly than the "on plant" photos that I have.
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Now, all that said ----- you could still work with the flower you have. Who knows where it could lead to? After the years of seeing the curled back petals on upright forms, though, I am not sure what the advantage would be in working with petals that curl in, as the best part of the petal colors would be facing in where we could not see them. You never know, though!
