Growing Cool Plants: August 2024

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

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.

Saturday, August 24, 2024

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 these. 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. So far their offspring are not as colorful as I'd like.

MM 21-165a. Wow, those are hairy eyes!

MM 21-165b

MM 21-165c

Here's a sibling.

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?

MM 21-162a. The first flower was a not what I imagined.

MM 21-162b. This is better...

MM 21-162c. Very nice!

This may be form B, but I'm not sure.

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.

MM 21-160a. I like this one, especially the bright orange blaze around the eye.

Here's a sibling.

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.

MM 21-156a. Although this 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 21-156b

MM 21-156c

MM 21-156d

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

MM 21-24a. 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.

MM 21-24b. I like the color in this one a bit better. Note how the orange color lightens a bit as you get closer to the eye.

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...

Friday, August 23, 2024

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. The results are nice.

MM 20-370a

MM 20-370b. I really like the contrast between the white and orange.

A sibling

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