First bloom. What a splendid flower! Here in San Jose, California, it took about eight years to get one of these corms to grow from seed to flowering plant. I had just the one flower in 2022. I saved the pollen very carefully and have tried it on several other Moraea flowers. Several of those crosses appear to have worked, and I am looking forward to doing more crosses with this plant in the future.
One of the distinctive things about this species is that the six tepals are almost all the same size. Usually the Peacock-type Moraeas have much smaller inner tepals.
The flower looks red in the photos, but in person it's more of a dark intense orange (the third photo comes closest).
Breath-taking! Fantastic to see these pictures of the species. Are you seeing this as a new genetic route to red moraea?
ReplyDeleteI hope so, Paul! I think it could add a ton of genetic diversity -- not just the color, but also the chevron shape of the eyes, and the wide inner tepals. But first I just need to get it to bloom consistently. It didn't bloom in 2023, so I am nervous.
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