Thanks Ken! good info. Don't know the Vera Cruz Rose...it sounds beautiful! I had a Scott Pratt about 8 years ago and couldn't make anything out of it. We had an Irma Bryan that was the best red grower we had and lost it to a fungus this winter..Deep deep burgundy crowns and almost as dark as our new Hilo. We do have crowns on our Nova Pink, Candy Stripe, and Hurricane that should be popping in a couple of weeks!
We have learned that most of our "exotics" are very sensitive to everything...cold, too much sun, too little sun..fungus (they are all very susceptible to fungus). What we are starting to believe is, plants that we get that are breed and raised in other climates do not readily adapt to the Texas weather to quickly..Hawaiin stuff is the worst (and yes, growing reds anywhere is tuff)...Kaneohe's and Puu Kahea's really struggle here. Our Babies that were breed here do the best, and our Sally..which leads me to believe she is also bred here in Texas. We have 20 new seedlings growing. 6 are 3 times the size of the others. 2 have VERY dark red trunks..I've never seen this before in a seedling. The seed pod came from one of our 2004 seedlings (yes we are Grandparents! haha) and had the following was blooming around her..Kaneohe Sunburst, Irma, and Hurricane!!! We can not wait to see what comes of these offspring...if we can get a deep red that is locally bred we will be ecstatic!! Strap on your seat belts for this one ! as we will know in just 3-4 years!
Terry
