Tim,
Yeah Helen was excited to introduce Blue Boy because it grew so well and didn't bloom as often. When you're trying to propagate to sell, those are important factors. Blue Boy is a seedling of her Thayne but much bluer.
I have found blue is one of the hardest to hybridize. My other line stems from Silverine, open pollinated. The one blue one from that group was Minaret and from Minaret came Frost and Flame, my bluest and biggest of these. Two years ago I crossed Pacific Blue Ice and Frost and Flame. Out of ~60 seedlings there was only one or two that showed any improvement towards blue. Looking at the segregation of the colors in these crosses it seems as though there must be a LITTLE purple and a lot of wax to get that blue look. Most of the blue ones show their best color in mid-summer rather than spring.
Kevin
