Anticipation

A lot of the fun of hybridizing is the anticipation of what's coming next. The goal is to get flowers that take your breath away, but early in the season, I'll settle for a bud that does that. The flower below has been in the process of opening for over a week, so I have no idea when it will make its debut. The first picture is from 2 days ago, and the second one is from today. It's from hot pink and hot rose breeding, but it sure looks like it will be a soft pink or yellow. Will let you know how it turns out unless it's too ugly to be photographed:-) Looks like it will have a "green sepal" problem - which happens early in the season when the temperatures are cool. The ends of the sepals are green and hard, so the flower doesn't look its best. I don't usually see later in the season or on outside blooms.

In the meantime, a number of selected seedlings from spring 2009 have started to bloom. The one below is 16809 - a grandkid of Man of Sorrows. Perfect color and form every day and a killer scape.