Planted in Spring 2010, we're watching some new seedlings.
The first batch of these are from 2 pseudacorus type seedlings out of 'Chance Beauty'(registered as I. pseudacorus L. X I. ensata Thunberg):
Blooming in 2011 as yearlings: Most are the common yellow of pseudacorus; #3CB4 is a nice tall cream with delicate light purple veining on the stylearms; #3CB5 is worth hanging onto with 4 branches plus the terminal buds; #3CB6 appears to be a broken color; #3CB8 also has light purple veining on the stylearms. 62 of these did not bloom this year:
I'm crossing the most interesting of these to the laevigata type from the previous generation. Those not interesting or which refuse to set seed will be removed to make room for other plants.
As with 'Chance Beauty', the pseudacorus type seedlings from 'Shape Shifter' (Adrenaline Rush X I. pseudacorus) were also the first to bloom and set seed:
Blooming in 2011 as yearlings: Most are showing the garish yellow of their great-grandparent; #3SS1 bloomed at only 6" tall; 3SS11 is very small and almost spidery compared to the others. One other would have bloomed if not for a cutworm who chewed through the stem. 46 did not bloom this year:
I'm crossing the most interesting of these to the Siberian type from the previous generation. As with the CB group, those not interesting or which refuse to set seed will be removed to make room for other plants.
We don't know either but the seedlings are popping up like weeds!
Only one seed from our cucumber X 'zucchetti' (zucchinni X spaghetti squash) project has germinated, but one is all you need if it's fertile!
I thought these photos might be interesting even though we still don't know if any seeds will come from crosses with it. The blooms are only slightly larger than cucumber as are the leaves but the fruits are considerably longer than any cucumber we've raised. The odd feature is that closest to the stem they are smooth like the zucchetti while the the end closest to the bloom shows the prickles common to the cucumber. (The color of the flagging tape tells us what each fruit has been crossed with.)
Since we're shooting for something similar to a melon that has no melon in its parentage, we're calling this a "melonot". These are 15" long and taste something like a green watermelon. (The cucumber did well to get to 6" long.) The plant itself has spread to around 5' x 8' and appears to have taken crosses of both the zucchetti and a non-related cucumber.
End of season note: Not all fruits set seed, in fact only 2 had some viable seed. One of the 'melonot' X cucumber and one of the open pollinated 'melonot' fruits produced 47 and 131 seeds respecively. It'll be interesting to see what pops out next year.
3 tiny seedlings from ((I. pseudacorus X I fulva) X self) have germinated. Good thing 'cause I still don't know if the F1 survived the neglect of the past few years.
A few dozen seedlings out of (('Adrenaline Rush' x 92JS10A (a JI type F1)) X ?) have been already been planted out.
We only have 2 seedlings from 'Fortell' X ? but they look healthy. 2012 should be interesting!
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