This year’s heavy rains in California made my Moraea plants happy. I don’t know if it was the extra moisture or the cool temperatures or both, but I had flowers from a number of plants that hadn’t ever bloomed before, or that had not bloomed for years. Here are my favorite new arrivals:
Just spectacular
I’ve had a lot of success breeding flowers with spots and streaks on them, usually blue spots over a white background. This is one of the first to have streaks over bright background colors. The result was a kind of fireworks explosion in a flower. For some other nice speckled and streaked flowers, see the section on spots below.
This must be red
If you’ve visited here before, you probably know that I have been trying for years to breed a red-flowered Moraea. I’ve come close: mauve flowers, brick-colored flowers, purpley-pink ones that you want to convince yourself are red but really aren’t. This year I had my first hybrid that I think can legitimately be called red:
Next I’d like to make that flower larger, more scarlet, and make the eye even brighter. Crosses with these next two flowers may help. They’re two new ones in the sorta-reddish category:
Hairy eyes
This year several new hybrids had brightly-colored eyes with irregular rings of strongly contrasting color around them. They look nice in photos, but are even more hypnotic in person:
GK 1803_3 (The plants labeled GK were grown by breeder Garry Knipe, and were photographed at his home.)
Beautiful colors
These flowers stand out because they have especially intense colors in pleasing combinations.
MM 19-56b. Stunning. Unfortunately, the yellow fades to white after a day or so.
MM 19-79a. Very nice contrast between the purple style crests (which are unusually large) and the white tepals.
MM 19-85. I love the crispness of the white ring around the eye.
MM 19-146b. Check out the watercolor blend of magenta and blue at the outer edge of the eye.
MM 14-177b. This hybrid from 2014, which had not bloomed before, has alluring metallic teal eyes, surrounded by a band of purple-black.
Bright green eyes
I’ve had flowers with green eyes before, but these are some of the most vivid ever.
Rainbow blends
In the last few years I’ve started to get some hybrids that have concentric rings of color in the eyes, kind of a rainbow effect. There were several new rainbow-style flowers this year. These are the nicest.
Lotsa’ spots
I had many new flowers this year with heavy spots or streaks on the tepals. I am fascinated that there’s so much potential for spots in the Moraeas, since only one of the species that I breed with has any spots (M. atropunctata). Many of these spotted hybrids don’t have atropunctata in their ancestry, so something else is going on.
MM 19-19a. Wow, lots happening in this one: wide inner tepals, big blue eyes, and about as many spots as you can possibly cram onto a flower.
MM 19-42b. There are some other interesting hybrids in this cross if you follow the link.
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Multicolored eye
Using M. bellendenii or M. lurida as a parent often causes multi-colored eyes in hybrids. These are a couple of the prettiest new flowers in that category.
Weird patterns
These hybrids involving M. lurida aren't necessarily beautiful, but they're incredibly interesting for their heavy veins. I’d like to get these patterns with brighter colors.
MM 17-19f. Check out the precise brown border around the central cup.
MM 19-72a. Picture this one if it had a brightly-colored eye.
About my breeding program
I've been growing summer-dormant bulbs for about 30 years, much of that time raising them in 8-inch (20-cm) pots. About a dozen years ago I had more than 800 pots, and they were very hard to maintain. So I started moving my plants into raised beds, which are much easier to maintain (less repotting, easier to protect from rodents, etc). I now have 14 beds, and add about one more each year (for more on the beds, click here).
Over the years I've tried growing hundreds of bulb species from summer-dry climates around the world: California, South Africa, Chile, etc. Many of these bulbs are unusual and beautiful, and I encourage you to try them. I've found that the Moraeas are especially rewarding -- they're relatively easy to grow in my climate in San Jose, CA, most of them are brightly colored, and many of the prettiest species can be hybridized to make unique new flowers.
Some people look down on hybridizing – they feel it distracts from preserving species. I don't agree. I do my best to preserve and share all the Moraea species I can get, but there are only so many species you can obtain. If I want to see new flowers every year, I need to cross them.
I am not a botanist and I'm making up my hybridization program as I go along. I welcome suggestions and other advice, especially if you have any botanical expertise.
My Moraea wish list
There are about twenty more Moraea species that should be compatible with the ones I’ve been breeding, but they are not available in commerce. I hear they’re privately grown, though. If you know of sources for seed or pollen of any of them, I am very happy to trade or pay. To be clear, I am not soliciting collection from the wild or anything else improper. I’d just like to be in touch with other growers who are willing to share. You can see my wish list here.
Free seeds
I am glad to share seeds of Moraea hybrids and species with anyone who’s interested. There’s no charge. Much of my collection was given to me by others, so I am trying to return that generosity. If you’re interested, send me a note at the email address here. Include your name, mailing address, how many seeds you'd like, and list the crosses or colors that appeal to you the most. I don't distribute bulbs, but I'll try to send you seeds that are likely to resemble the flowers you like. I send seeds in late autumn to winter of each year California time.
Thank you
Many people helped me build my bulb collection, including Paul F. X. Von Stein, Garry Knipe, Jim Duggan, Gordon Summerfield, Cameron and Rhoda McMaster, Rod and Rachel Saunders, Mary Sue Ittner, and the members of the Pacific Bulb Society, International Bulb Society, and the Indigenous Bulb Growers of South Africa. Plus many more people I've forgotten to list. Thank you all.
Finally (big sigh) I’m very sad to note the passing of Bob Werra, the leading grower of Moraea in the US (and probably the world). Bob was a sweet, smart, and very enthusiastic person who took great delight in the intricate and beautiful details of these plants. A strong advocate of conservation through cultivation, Bob gave me much of his collection when he became too old to maintain it. He was a constant source of seeds, corms, and sage advice to anyone who asked. Thank you, Bob. I’ll remember you fondly every year when the flowers bloom.
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