Moraea GK 1940

Seed parent: MM 12-136a ((M. atropunctata x neopavonia) x villosa) X neopavonia

Pollen parent: MM 13-87a (villosa X (villosa x tulbaghensis))

These flowers aren't all that much to look at, but the plants are extremely vigorous, tall and with many buds.

GK 1940_1

GK 1940_2

Moraea GK 1918

Seed parent: GK 1312 MX_9 (parents unknown)

Pollen parent: GK 1515_1 (M. aristata x villosa) X (aristata x villosa)

GK 1919a. Look closely! There's a fascinating etched ring around the outer edge of the eye. That's an inheritance from the pollen parent.

Here's a closeup.

GL 1918b. Nice eyelash edge to the eyes.

Here's a sibling.

Moraea melanops

This is a marvelous little species. The plant is only a few inches tall, but the flower is large and held upright, like a pink-purple radar dish. It's a delight to come across them in the wild, and in cultivation they are as elegant and captivating as the finest alpine plant -- but tons easier to grow in California.

The plants appear to be self-fertile, so I am hopeful that I'll be able to raise a patch of them, which would be marvelous.

Unfortunately, they do not appear to cross with the Peacock Moraeas, as they are in a different subgenus.

Moraea MM 2024

Seed parent: Unknown

Pollen parent: Unknown

MM 2024a. This seedling popped up at random in one of my plant beds. I don't have any idea of its parentage, but it's an interesting flower because of all the streaks on the tepals.

MM 2024b. According to the plant label, this was supposed to be a color form of M. lurida. Although lurida is a very variable species, this flower doesn't match the descriptions (or the look) of any lurida form I've seen. I think it may be a hybrid involving M. villosa.

Whatever its parentage, I really like the look of the purple outer tepals and the orange inner tepals, and I hope to make crosses with it.

Moraea MM 21-253

Seed parent: M. ochroleuca

Pollen parent: M. flaccida (probably)

Interesting. Some of these flowers look a lot like the seed parent, while others are very much like the pollen parent. They are not the mix of characteristics I usually get from a species cross. What is that telling me?

I made crosses between them, and also self-pollinated them, to see what will happen next.

MM 21-253a. Looks like the seed parent.

MM 21-253b. Looks like the pollen parent.

Moraea MM 21-165

Seed parent: MM 18-91 (M. bellendenii x aristata) X ((atropunctata x calcicola) x (villosa x tulbaghensis)

Pollen parent: MM 13-89a (villosa x tulbaghensis) X villosa

I need to do more work on this one. The seed parent is a pale orange flower with no eye and a lot of spots, while the pollen parent is one of my most colorful hybrids.

When crossed, the spots disappeared (not surprising since they are usually recessive), but the flower colors are also extremely uninspiring. If I can get more than one of this cross to bloom, I will do a sibling cross between them to see if I can get more color and pattern variation.

Moraea MM 21-162

Seed parent: MM 17-10a (tripetala x calcicola) X ('Zoe' x atropunctata)

Pollen parent: MM 18-344a (villosa selection) X ((aristata x villosa) x neopavonia)

High hopes! I crossed a heavily speckled flower with an orange one that has a rainbow center. Who knows what sort of crazy beauty will come out of that combination?

The first flower was a not what I imagined.

Moraea MM 21-160

Seed parent: MM 15-80b (M. atropunctata x calcicola) X neopavonia

Pollen parent: MM 17-17b (aristata x villosa) X unknown

The parents are both white flowers with strong blue eyes, and I was hoping for the same with this cross. So naturally the flower is orange.

Moraea MM 21-156

Seed parent: MM 18-344b (M. villosa selection) X ((aristata x villosa) x neopavonia)

Pollen parent: MM 18-322a (tripetala x villosa h) X ((aristata x villosa) x neopavonia)

Very interesting. The seed parent is a cream-colored flower with concentric bands of color in the center. The pollen parent is white with a mostly orange center, and it's also one of the tallest and most vigorous hybrids I have, with lots of buds and flowers that are unusually long-lasting. I have been making dozens of crosses with it, just to inject that vigor into the mix. 

With this particular cross, I was hoping for a very floriferous plant with rainbow colors in the middle. I didn't quite get that. But these flowers are elegant looking, which is nice. And although the plant didn't make a lot of buds, its individual flowers lasted for about a week each, quite a bit longer than the usual 3-4 days. That's why you see two flowers together in the last photo -- the second one opened while the first one was still in bloom. That's unusual for this subgenus of Moraea.

MM 21-156a

Moraea MM 21-24

Seed parent: MM 18-104 (M. unguiculata X villosa form o)

Pollen parent: MM 15-80b (atropunctata x calcicola) X neopavonia

Hmmmmm, this is interesting. I have done relatively few crosses with M. unguiculata so far, and don't have a good handle on what it does to hybrids. In those case, not much. The seed parent looks a lot like villosa o, and this hybrid looks a lot like the pollen parent, MM 15-80b. I hope I'll get some more plants from this cross; maybe the siblings will be different.

Moraea MM 21-21

Seed parent: MM 15-80a (M. atropunctata x calcicola) X neopavonia

Pollen parent: M. villosa form o

I was hoping to get the orange color and wide tepals of the seed parent combined with the colors of villosa o. It didn't really work, but maybe if I cross this with yet another orange flower...

Moraea MM 20-370

Seed parent: MM 17-11a (M. tulbaghensis x (villosa x tulbaghensis)) X unknown

Pollen parent: MM 13-10a (aristata x villosa) X neopavonia

I crossed two flowers that have prominent orange blazes in the center of the flower. Only one of the offspring came out as I expected.

MM 20-360

Seed parent: MM 13-10a (M. aristata x villosa) X neopavonia

Pollen parent: M. villosa form o

The seed parent has a prominent orange blush on it, and I was hoping to get that superimposed over the colors of the pollen parent. It didn't really happen, except for the thready orange inner tepals.

Moraea MM 20-357

Seed parent: M. villosa form o

Pollen parent: MM 13-41a (M. villosa selection)

This is a cross between two very vividly-colored parents. Their offspring is nice but not as spectacular as I hoped.

Moraea MM 20-353

Seed parent: M. aristata

Pollen parent: M. 15-80b (atropunctata x calcicola) X neopavonia

I think I was hoping to get M. aristata's purple-blue eyes on the big white flowers of 15-80b. I didn't get that, but check out the huge inner tepals of these plants.

MM 20-353a

MM 20-353b

Moraea MM 20-348

Seed parent: M. villosa form o

Pollen parent: MM 13-89d (villosa x tulbaghensis) X villosa

This was an experiment in crossing two intensely colored flowers. The result was some brightly colored offspring.

MM 20-348a

MM 20-384b

A sibling...

Here's a family portrait

Moraea MM 20-336

Seed parent: MM 13-07f (M. villosa selection)

Pollen parent: MM 13-07e (M. villosa selection)

Moraea MM 20-335

Seed parent: MM 15-120 (M. atropunctata X neopavonia)

Pollen parent: M. villosa form o

MM 20-335a. Very wide tepals, but otherwise it looks like the pollen parent. I need to do more breeding with this to see if we can surface some recessive genes.

Moraea MM 20-309

Seed parent: MM 17-10a (M. tripetala x calcicola) X ('Zoe' x atropunctata)

Pollen parent: MM 17-11a (tulbaghensis x (villosa x tulbaghensis) X unknown

Hmmm, I crossed a white flower that has heavy spots with an orange flower that has no spots whatsoever. I was probably hoping for an orange flower with spots, but instead...

It's not the most spectacular flower, but look again: the central cup is a nice lemon yellow, but the inner tepals are bright orange. That is quite an unusual color pattern. I am not sure what to cross it with next, but it's definitely intriguing.

Moraea MM 20-223

Seed parent: MM 12-67f (M. villosa selection)

Pollen parent: MM 13-89d (villosa X (tulbaghensis x villosa))

This is a cross between two attractive and brightly-colored flowers, but alas their offspring is a bit dull.

Moraea MM 20-184

Seed parent: MM 13-14d (M. atropunctata x calcicola) X unknown

Pollen parent: MM 17-17a (aristata x villosa) X unknown

Interesting! The seed parent is a small flower with a buzz-saw edge to the eye. The pollen parent looks like M. villosa with a few prominent rays coming out of the eye. In combination they made these interesting speckled flowers.

MM 20-184a

MM 20-184b

Moraea MM 20-180

Seed parent: MM 17-35 (M. bellendenii x (gigandra x (atropunctata x neopavonia))) X (tripetala x neopavonia)

Pollen parent: MM 13-07c (villosa selection)

Hmmm, this flower does not closely resemble either parent.

This one looks a lot like the seed parent. I like the faint red-purple ring around the yellow eye.

MM 20-178

Seed parent: MM 15-73a (M. villosa form F X Homeria species)

Pollen parent: MM 17-53b (neopavonia X tulbaghensis)

What a wonderful little mystery this flower is. Its seed parent looks exactly like M. villosa, and in fact I doubt there are actually any Homeria genes in it. The pollen parent is a bright orange flower, typical for a cross between two orange species.

Based on my experience, crossing those two flowers should have produced a pale orange flower with prominent eyes. Instead we get this fascinating purple flower with dense veins, speckles, and no eye. It doesn't look quite like anything else I've grown. 

I suppose it might be a stray seed from MM 20-179, which is a cross between MM 17-10a (which is heavily speckled) and M. villosa. But that ought to look like villosa. So the mystery continues.

Unfortunately, this flower has virtually no pollen, and did not set seeds when I crossed something onto it. I will try again in future years.

Moraea MM 20-173

Seed parent: MM 15-120b (M. atropunctata X neopavonia 'Summerfield')

Pollen parent: MM 15-90a (villosa X (tulbaghensis x villosa))

Moraea MM 20-172

Seed parent: MM 16-40b (M. gigandra X neopavonia 'Summerfield')

Pollen parent: MM 16-40c (M. gigandra X neopavonia 'Summerfield')

By crossing these siblings, I was hoping to get some interesting recessive genes to show up. No luck so far; this flower looks a lot like its parents.

Moraea MM 20-156

Seed parent: MM 17-50 (M. neopavonia X 'Zoe')

Pollen parent: MM 17-50 (M. neopavonia X 'Zoe')

The parents are crosses between a bright orange flower and a flower with intense purple spots. All of the plants in MM 17-50 have pale yelllow to orange flowers with no spots, which is expected -- spots and streaks seem to be recessive in Moraeas. So by crossing these siblings, I am hoping to get some orange flowers with spots. It didn't work in this particular individual; it reverted to the look of M. neopavonia. I need to grow more of these seeds. Stay tuned.

Moraea MM 20-154

Seed parent: MM 15-80b (M. atropunctata x calcicola) X neopavonia 'Summerfield'

Pollen parent: MM 12-67f (villosa selection)

This is a cross between a white hybrid and a reddish form of M. villosa. I don't remember exactly what I was hoping to get from the cross, maybe a pinkish flower? Instead I got a strong rich orange. The plant is nice; I like the intensity of the colors and the wide inner tepals. But it's definitely not what I expected.

Moraea MM 20-117

Seed parent: MM 16-40a (M. gigandra X neopavonia)

Pollen parent: MM 15-45 (M. 'Zoe' X neopavonia)

This is one of my favorite new hybrids of 2024. In shape and markings it looks a lot like Moraea gigandra, but it's bright yellow instead of purple. That's exciting to me for a couple of reasons:

• First, I really like the blue and yellow color combination. 
• Second, this cross is intriguing to me genetically because both parents are pale orange flowers that resulted from crosses between purple and deep orange parents. In the past I've gotten the sense that repeated crosses of purple X orange hybrids could produce yellow, but this is one of the clearest examples of it in action. I wonder what it is about that genetic combination that makes yellow. The chemistry of flower pigments is pretty subtle, and although I've tried to read up on it, I don't really know what's going on. If anyone has thoughts on it, I'd love to hear from you.

Unfortunately, as happens in many of these yellow Moraea hybrids, the yellow color doesn't last; in a couple of days it fades to cream. I have crossed this plant with some yellow hybrids and species to see if I can stabilize the color.

MM 20-117a. First day.

Second day.

Third day