Most used pollen parents in 2012

I planted 3000 seeds on August 1-2, 2012 (and the vast majority had germinated and were above ground by August 13), representing 100 pollen parents and 300 pod parents. The top 6 pollen parents represented an unusually high (for me) 30% of the total (but an odd year due to not having my normal 125-150 "mama" plants from special new seedlings because the greenhouse was closed from July 2010 to June 2011). I am seeing more dormancy than usual in this year's crop, reflecting the desire to bring more of that into my program to see if that will improve the ratio of introductions to seedlings planted from my past average of 1 out of 400. You will notice that five of the six are purples and lavenders. Familiar territory and colors that "talk" to me and make my heart sing.

The first of the six most used pollen parents is seedling 24312 (below). 7.5", very tall scape in the greenhouse (head high), saturated rose color that reflects its Not Guilty parentage, and a sharky white edge that represents a break for me (I usually get purples with white edges). It includes all my powerhouse breeders including Kingdom Without End, Gnashing of Teeth, Not Guilty, All Things to All Men, Chariot of Clouds, Secret of Contentment, Skin of My Teeth. I put it with 44 different pod parents, and am hoping to get tall plants with  rich clear colors, chalky eyes and white teeth.

The second of the six is Alpha and Omega, one of my 2013 introductions that has always been an outside plant so didn't make seeds with it until this year. It is a dormant out of Inscribed on My Heart x (Storm Shelter x Jane Trimmer), and is making very dormant seedlings. I used it with 32 pod parents and am hoping to get bold eyes, chalky eyes, and a few patterns (I didn't have many patterned things this year to put it on) in super hardy plants.

The third of the six is seedling 26712, an exciting 7" reverse bitone beauty which had a unique pattern each day. It is out of my tall, well branched dormant 52708 (out of 40807 and 10907 which includes Secret of Contentment and a lot of eyed breeding - see comments about it elsewhere on the blog) and seedling 28909 (which includes 40807, Entwined in the Vine, Inscribed in My Heart, Chariot of Clouds). I used it with 40 pod parents including anything with a hint of a pattern, hoping to get a pattern on at least some of them. 

The fourth of the six is seedling 10112, which bloomed at 9" on its initial bloom and settled in at 7" - a full-formed beauty with a great edge and chalky eye out of Cosmic Struggle and 25807. Cosmic Struggle is a great performer and grows like a weed, is almost dormant in the greenhouse, and haven't made many seeds out of it because it was always an outside plant, so thought this would be a good opportunity. I put it on all my chalky eyes (36 pod parents), hoping to make them bigger and hardier.

The fifth of the six is seedling 31312, a tall, 7.5" beauty with a neon eye and 4 way branching in its maiden year. Its parents include lots of hardy things like Chariot of Clouds, All Things to All Men, Gnashing of Teeth, 13107. I put it on 32 pod parents, hoping to get size and height and fanciness.

The sixth of the six is Bluegrass Memories, which I used with 45 pod parents. I have been meaning to use it ever since I saw some of the pretty things Ted Preuss had gotten out of it when he put it with Heartbeat of Heaven (partial line breeding because Fortune's Dearest is in both of them). I thought it might work well with all of my neon lavender chalky eyes, and am hoping that its smaller size and lack of a fancy edge won't take things backward - will find out soon.