At the Sacramento Convention in 2017, Steve Hampson had a lovely pot filled with the bulbocodium ‘Julia Jane’ in full bloom. Also at the convention were a few cut flowers of John Reed’s ‘Red Envy’ one of the reddest cupped flowers I have ever seen. after getting permission from both growers I applied the ‘Red Envy’ pollen to about half of the ‘Julia Jane’ flowers. Only the pollinated flowers made pods. I collected a large amount of seed and planted it in my usual square 4″ pots in July of 2017. Normally I leave seedlings in the same pots for two or occassionally three years.
To my great surprise I noticed flower buds appearing in late November of 2018. The narrow leaves, themselves suggested that the seedlings were pure bulbocodium. The flowers started opening in mid-December. The plants are flowering 18 months following seed sowing.
Ta-Julia seedlings.
Bulbocodiums are an obvious choice for beginner hybridizers who are impatient.
Harold,
The seedling look uniform like ‘Julia Jane’. Do you think they developed by apomixis?
Theo
I think Theo is correct, but the flowers do not look look flat enough to be the true ‘Julia Jane’, which should be petunioid in form. I wish all our seedlings were so speedy!
I will have to look at the Julia Jane again this year to see if they are indeed petunioid.
Harold