Seedlings currently in bloom.

I suppose that these flowers should be considered winter flowering. The greens below were made in 2002 and have been slow to increase. Nevertheless I have been using many of them for breeding, and selected the best and moved them to another bed. Our house was being renovated and I was told that it would only take 3 months, starting in September, 2013. We did not want the builders clambering all over this raised bed and so built a wooden cover that enclosed the entire bed. We figured we could start watering in December or January.  Construction lasted nearly the entire year and the planter was never watered. I watered it again in September 2014 and am amazed that we have flowers today. Some are shown below.

Mixed green seedlings.

This is the first of a cross between one of the selected greens from above by the Portuguese yellow early N. lusitanicus (sometimes called N. triandrus concolor). Looks as if there will be two buds to the stem. the green color appears to be holding.

2011-056 a 5G-G
(2002-158-1 x N. lusitanicus)

In early 2012 we flowered a very large bulbocodium in a batch of seedlings that I called “Monster Bulbo” just so one could keep track of it. It was pollinated with a mix of bulbo pollens. Quite a few have been keepers but I think this one is the best.

2012-079A-1 “Monster Bulbo” x unknown

Bob Spott’s garden is filled with all sorts of little jonquillas. There was a clump growing near his front gate that only bore one rounded flower to the stem. He said it was a sibling of ‘Ho Ho Kam’. Generously Bob allowed me to harvest some pollen and as I needed some way to keep track of the parentage I called it “Ho Ho Hum.” It was used on a number of potential parents. I pollinated ‘Lightning Fire’ and harvested quite a few seeds. The flowers bloomed for the first time last year in mid-January. They are too early for the show season for me in So., Cal.  but it might come later in a colder climate. Flowers are strongly colored which is good for a miniature and in its 2nd year of flowering has made 4 flowers, one to a stem. Good increase and if it continues to perform well it will eventually be registered. The perianth has some of the ‘Clouded Yellow’ diffuseness. Perianths only measure 48 mm in diameter for me so it qualifies as a miniature 2Y-R.

2010-011b-1
(Lightning Fire x “Ho Ho Hum” unreg.)