One of these five seedlings, below, from seed out of Cherry Roulette, above, was the best new seedling I raised this year. I’ll let you decide which one. The others show some of the variation produced among the few new seedlings I had space to grow out. Cherry Roulette’s seedlings can be beautifully formed, or they can be malformed in different ways. Typical flaws are flowers that don’t open fully or evenly (having one or more short, under-developed or slow-to-develop petals); trumpet-shaped flowers; missing, distorted, or broken reproductive parts. Not shown here, because I neglected to photograph them, are some very good reds, light pinks, dark purples, and a halo type, pale pink where Cherry Roulette is dark red. It is certainly worthwhile to pollinate Cherry Roulette from a wide range of flowers. Not every seedling will be worth keeping, but that is true of any packet of Strep seeds. The defects in some Cherry Roulette seedlings are more obvious, and decisive, than is usually the case. Colours and markings are generally good, sometimes very fine, often strong and striking.
Plants in this next group are raised from a seed mix out of several named cultivars, pollinated with other named cultivars. The bicolor streps used as pollen parents are often female sterile, as are most of these seedlings. Are any of these worth keeping, given that I will need space to raise a new group of seedlings next year? If I have to choose, I like the dark purple over yellow with lighter blue upper lobes. I will keep the plants with fertile flowers at least a year to produce seed.
DS Neznyi Angel, above, is female infertile, but once produced a small pod of around 25 seeds. (Read about it here.) Below are the flowers on some of those plants. Most were vigorous plants with lots of big blooms. Around a third were fertile, and I am now collecting seeds that will grow into Neznyi Angel’s grandchildren.
Along with a mix of seeds from the ex Neznyi Angel seedlings, this winter I will start seeds from 2019’s Named Cultivars Mix, and from the all white DS 1289, white and blue Full Moon, and speckled Hototogisu (below). If I raise around 25 of each, that will make a fair sample, and the new seedlings will take up more space than I have. Started now (early November), they will begin to bloom in April or May. Check back here in another year to see the results.
Primrose Fields 