Next most used pollen parents

A couple of days ago, I wrote about my 6 most planted pollen parents, which represented 30% of the seeds planted. Today's 4 represent an additional 13%. The first is Flying Purple People Eater by Sandy Holmes. It is very dormant, has beautiful color throughout petals and sepals, is registered at 10.5", and did very well in my garden in 2011 (although it had a rough 2012 like the majority of my plants because of the Midwest Malaise). I use at least one sort of "crazy" parent each year (in the sense of not even remotely knowing if it will work), and this one is it. I am hoping to add size and dormancy and hardiness to my fancy purples, and crossed it with 43 of them. Of course, that is what I last tried doing with Webster's Pink Wonder, and got a long row of boring, and even ugly, throwbacks, none of which appeared to pick up any of my fancy edges. Thank goodness most of them bloomed, so I could quickly toss them rather than wasting garden space. Sandy has had good luck with FPPE, so am hoping it will work with my lines.

The next one is my 2012 introduction, Thistles and Thorns. It is one of my best performers - hardy, well-branched, great teeth, and instant rebloom - although it needs heat to show off its teeth. I used it with 32 pod parents to add performance and sharks to my purple lines. For example, it went with obvious ones like Skin of My Teeth and Gnashing of Teeth, plus newer intros All Things to All Men, Not Guilty, and Faith that Moves Mountains, plus some of the new seedlings from 2012 (see website for 2012 greenhouse seedlings) like 8912, 10112, 11412, 25912.

The third is my 2013 introduction  All Things to All Men, which was used with about 40 pod parents. (I also used it extensively as a pod parent.) It is an amazing parent - producing fancy flowers with nice scapes and instant rebloom. 

The fourth is seedling 8912, which is out of All Things to All Men and 52708 breeding. As a 10 month seedling, it was 8" with 4 way branching. Even though it sometimes tangled, I used it on 26 pod parents because of its size, fanciness, hardy parents, twinkle midribs (which can sometimes produce patterns in the kids), and lavender eye.