Toru

Toru —  very tall ,strong and upright growth.
  Flowers here about 8 –10 days after Tahi.
  A big difference in cup shape.
  Toru has an entire, upright uncut rim.
  Tahi has a slightly flared and serrated cup and rim, and is earlier.
  Both have soft yellow –  primrose cups that fade to whitish with maturity.

2 comments for “Toru

  1. John,

    Thank you for keeping me cooler while I look at your photos, think of springtime, and imagine the wonderful scents of the tazettas while we are in the high 80’s here in middle Tennessee.  Clouds (with a 40% chance of rain I hope we get) are keeping us out of the 90’s today.  Thanks for the people photos, too. 

    Becky Fox Matthews

  2. It has often been questioned whether these varieties, raised by Max Hamilton from seeds that I sent him, are really bred from Paper White, as I have indicated .  There is no doubt however, that this is the case.  The KEY here is that the paperwhites used in making these crosses were TETRAPLOID, using any of several clones that I developed in the 1980’s using colchicine.

    In terms of species background, the genetic makeup of Toru, etc., is 2 parts paperwhite (N. papyraceus) and 1 part bicolor N tazetta.  This  is exactly the same makeup as in ancient Dutch varieties like White Pearl, Grand Primo, Scilly White, Polly’s Pearl, etc.  I doubt the Dutch ever had tetraploid paperwhites (though they can theoretically occur naturally, so who knows!), so would  assume these were most likely developed from occasional unreduced pollen grains or ovules  of paperwhites, when crossed with various bicolor diploid forms of N  tazetta.

    In making this cross, the tetraploid paperwhites that I used for pollen were very early-flowering types, and the seed parents I used were miscellaneous members of the autumn/early winter-flowering “Autumn Colors” group (bicolor or yellow diploid pure N. tazetta).  So it is from both sides of their ancestry that they acquire their earliness compared with the ancient Dutch varieties of similar ancestry.

    I still have these tetraploid paperwhites, as well as other tetraploid conversions within the tazetta group.  They are in short supply, but serious breeders are welcome to contact me for bulbs as they become available.

    Incidentally, Grand Monarque, Avalanche, Compressus, etc.,  are of the opposite makeup, so while they are only 1 part paperwhite they are 2 parts bicolor N. tazetta.  Hence their darker cups than the other group.

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