A star is born

The flower beds are really starting to get moving now, all the earliest to flower are the primulinus x huttonii hybrids. The vigour is unbelievable and the variation all from one cross and in some cases the same seed pod is incredible.

The main aim has always to be reduce the plant and flower size in proportion and make it into a garden plant. I've never been so close and we are only about twenty plants into the flowering season.

Getting a range of plants together with shared characteristics, but with variations on flower colour has proved elusive until I embarked on this cross with the species tristis.

Lots more to follow!

First of the first

The first of the seedlings to flower this year. Planted only a few months ago this plant has species blood. Gladioli tristis pollen was put to one of my my hybrids and it possesses tristis qualities in spades, early flowering, tight foliage somewhere in between tristis and the small flowering hybrids and medium height as well.

Left in the ground this Winter it will flower even earlier next year.

There's a whole raft of these seedlings coming through in the next few days, mostly in the same colour palette, but one Dark purple is showing six flower stems from one corm, I'll post later.

The purple one is my hybrid, the pollen is from tristis, the creamy yellow/white flower.

Second year seedlings

Very rarely do you see any flowers from plants sown in the same year, four, five at most.

It's in their second year that the majority will flower, they will be given a third year to check for other attributes, like self propagation, hardiness and sometimes they even grow taller.

But in 2020 I exceeded the amount of crosses I usually make and subsequently now have rows and rows of Gladioli all ready to surprise and disappoint me.

This year I have borrowed some land nearby in Calbourne, as I had so many and I need to give my soil a rest for a couple of years. They are all planted in raised beds with each respected cross labelled and planted in rows. I'll spray for thrips when they have their fourth leaf and that's all the attention they'll get now, roll on the flower spikes.