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Sunday, May 17, 2020

Moraea MM 15-89

Seed parent: MM 10-02c (M. villosa X tulbaghensis with green eye)
Pollen parent: Moraea villosa form a+

I am delighted with the huge variety of interesting colors and patterns in these flowers.

MM 15-89a. Wow! That is a spectacular combination of colors.


MM 15-80b. More spots than form a, but the colors are less distinctive.


MM 15-89c

MM15-89d

I haven't given these letters yet.



Here are a couple of family portraits.


Moraea MM 15-86

Seed parent: M. neopavonia with slate eye
Pollen parent: M. villosa form n

MM 15-86a



Moraea MM 15-60

Seed parent: MM 10-02d (M. villosa X tulbaghensis with green eye)
Pollen parent: MM 10-02a

MM 15-60a. The dots on this one are tiny and spread fairly uniformly. I like it! I'm also pleased that this F2 hybrid has a bigger flower than its parents.

Moraea MM 15-44

Seed parent: Moraea bellendenii
Pollen parent: MM 11-17c (M. gigandra X villosa form A)

I was hoping for a weird yellow-purple flower, but I think this is just a self-pollinated M. bellendenii.

MM 15-44a

Friday, May 15, 2020

Moraea MM 15-22

Seed parent: MM 11-20b (M. villosa form a X tulbaghensis with blue eye)
Pollen parent: MM 11-72a (M. tulbaghensis with blue eye X villosa form a)

The parents are both yellow-orange, blue-eyed flowers. Put them together and what do you get?

MM 15-22a. Interesting. We kept the blue eye, but the tepals are kind of cream colored suffused with dirty purple and veins. I was hoping for something brighter.

Moraea MM 15-07

Seed parent: Moraea bellendenii
Pollen parent: Moraea villosa form n

MM 15-07a. As usual M. bellendenii did weird things to the eye of this hybrid.In this case it ended up with a jagged edge.



Moraea MM 15-04

Seed parent: Moraea bellendenii
Pollen parent: MM 10-16d (M. neopavonia x atropunctata) X gigandra

I was curious to see wht would happen if I crossed a reddish flower with a yellow one. The result was pure yellow, and I think it may actually be self-pollinated.

MM 15-04a




Thursday, May 14, 2020

Moraea MM 14-69

Seed parent: MM 10-03b (M. gigandra X (atropunctata x neopavonia))
Pollen parent: MM 11-35c ((M. atropunctata x neopavonia) x villosa) X (atropunctata x neopavonia)

This was a cross between a pale yellowish flower and a pinky one, in hope of getting a reddish flower. So far it didn't work.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Moraea MM 13-53

Seed parent: MM 03-98c (M. atropunctata X calcicola)
Pollen parent: Moraea villosa form d

I was hoping for something with unusual colors, but these are fairly conventional looking. I haven't assigned letters to them yet.





Moraea MM 13-19

Seed parent: MM 10-02b (M. villosa X tulbaghensis)
Pollen parent: MM 10-02a

This F2 cross of two of my all-time favorite hybrids has very interesting markings, but the overall effect is more weird than spectacular.

MM 13-19a



Ixia MM 11-99

Seed parent: I. flexuosa
Pollen parent: I. maculata

This is a very cheerful little plant. The clean white flowers have magenta and yellow centers.


Gladiolus MM 16-44

Seed parent: MM 10-30 (G. watsonius X carmineus)
Pollen parent: MM 11-22c ((G. priorii x gracilis) X violaceo-lineatus)

MM 16-44a

Gladiolus MM 17-98

Seed parent: MM 11-03b (G. violaceo-lineatus X (priorii x gracilis))
Pollen parent: Unknown (maybe MM 11-21; the tag was faded)

There are some very nice flowers in this cross. In my garden they're growing all clustered together in one small area in a raised bed. It's beautiful when they all bloom in the beginning of March.

MM 17-98a. I really like this one: white upper tepals, clear bright lines on the lower tepals. The flower is pretty small, though.

17-98b


17-98c



17-98d


Here are some others...

This one looks a lot like form C, but with denser markings.

I like the vividness of the purple veins on this one. It really grabs your eye.



Gladiolus MM 17-95

Seed parent: MM 12-17a (G. violaceo-lineatus X priorii)
Pollen parent: MM 12-17c

MM 17-95a. When I first saw this flower, I was intrigued by the dark rim on the edges of the tepals. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure it was due to a hot spell we had as the bud was opening, not some sort of color breakthrough.


Here's the same plant a year later, and as you can see there's no dark edge.

MM 17-95b

MM 17-95c

Here are some other siblings...








Saturday, May 9, 2020

Gladiolus MM 17-94

Seed parent: MM 11-14b ((G. priorii x gracilis) X carinatus)
Pollen parent: Unknown

The pollen parent is a very pretty purple and white flower. I wish I knew what I crossed it with, because the results are nice.

MM 17-94a

MM 17-94b


MM 17-94c



MM 17-94d

MM 17-94e

MM 17-94f