Hallson Gardens

More seeds tonite! The second pod to open here and it was a suprise also ... Blue River had a small pod from one of his first flowers to ripen today. At the time that he was in flower there were only a few others in flower as well. Queen of the Seas, Sagae, & Frances Williams for sure ... and possib...

The late blooming Sun Power baby seems to have been a success with pollen crosses on quite a few of the fragrants. Plantagenia, Royal Standard, Bub's Gift, Fragrant Blue, & Stained Glass have pods showing development. Lancifolia, June, and El Nino have pods forming with a SP cross also. I've a bit o...

There wasn't as much activity this weekend as I had hoped. With all day Saturday rain and a really cold Sunday the flowers have been a lot slower to open. Pollen isn't ripening in the new flowers until the sun is up a couple hours. Sun Power finished flowering today. El Nino has one bud to go. Breed...

A Saturday morning off. I still woke at 4AM but turned over and went back to sleep for another 1/2 hour. It's was cold and the pollen doesn't form as quickly now as it did when it was warmer. Most of the open flowers have anthers that are not fully ripened. I'm using yesterday's pollen or older stor...

It was cold in the gardens this morning! Fifty Nine degrees at 5:30 and I had a swetatshirt on for the first time since March. A summer cold is coming on also ... but I still wanted to make the rounds. Got home early enough to do the late hybridizing and a little weeding with some sun still shining....

Seeds! Sagae jumped way ahead of the earlier bloomers and had a pod ripen tonite. It was split on the scape but no seeds had fallen out. I was expecting the first one with seeds to be Queen of the Seas or Spilt Milk ... maybe even Frances Williams ... but Sagae won out. These seeds are Open Pollinat...

OOPS!

It was a typo ... I swear.

Curtis/m2m

Who would have thougth that at this late stage in the season that new scapes would still be forming. I was really excited to find scapes on Fire Island, Sun Power, Breeder's Choice, & Paradise Red Delight when they started to form two weeks ago. El Nino made a late scape a week later. Kabitan sent o...

Hey Jamie Thanks for the good wishes. The Maraschino Cherry I got from you was used in rotation for the several flowers that he made. He has about 10 pods and one is from Misty Gold ... keeping my fingers crossed for that one. If you do have an extra eye of your wonderful Gunther to divide off next ...

Thanks Mary Ann I'm enjoying hearing from everyone as well. You might well be amazed at the amount of emails I've been receiving about an interest in hybridizing. I don't claim to be an expert but it really isn't that difficult. You don't have to collect the seeds or keep records unless you want to....

Hi Dee It makes me happy that you're enjoying this post so much. Quite a few have emailed me privately to ask questions or say how much they like the pics ... it helps to know that others are finding these posts useful or fun. Thanks for thaking the time to post a nice commentary. I too am looking f...

Look what I found in the garden tonite .... Breeder's Choice ... two scapes http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y264/marriedtomud/BreedersChoice-2.jpg Paradeise Red Delight ... one scape http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y264/marriedtomud/ParadiseRedDelight-1.jpg Fire Island ... three scapes http://i7.p...

LOL Jane Surely you jest .... is there a pic limit? If there is it's the first I'm hearing of it. I've never had any problem posting as many pics as I need/want to. I thought it was eight pics .... nine would have been pushing the envelope a bit. Oh ... on the hybridizing front .... Thunderbolt and ...

Got home early enough to work in the gardens a bit tonite and did a little pod calculating ... also got a few pics as promised. Plantagenia had closed for the day and too early to tell if the first cross took ... so no pics of his flower today. This one doesn't bloom at night ... He starts in the mo...

Seventh Heaven has a big juicy pod forming. This was just about the most anticipated pod since the first crosses with Lachman ... (While that was just a month ago it seems more like a year.) I was growing frustrated to see SH lose buds day after day with not a single pod to take. Even after the heat...

Had time this weekend to check on pod development .... a few disappointments with small pods turning yellow and dropping off. The high heat period definately shows on the scapes. Striptease took with quite a few as the pollen donor but now most of them are aborting. There are a few where the crosses...

Ripe pollen is yellow/orange in color and flufffy. If you pick an anther from a Hosta flower and rub it on your hand the ripe pollen will show. When a lot of the fragrant flowers open (some of the non fragrants as well) their anthers aren't showing this 'ripened' pollen. Their anthers are the color ...

Due to some long work shifts I've not been able to spend as much time in the gardens in the mornings. Just barely enough time to get the 'majors' crossed. One good bit of news ... hopefully home early enough tomorrow for pics ... there are pods developing on a couple of the big flowering fragrants. ...

Got home early enough tonite to do a Pod development inspection and was wonderfully excited about a few things. 'Bullseye' (Lachman mini streaker) looks to be fertile both ways. His first few flowers look to have pods starting and there were lots of crosses where his pollen took. Bright Lights has t...

Hi Denise I hope you have as much good luck with your Lachman as I've had with mine. Suprised by Joy is adorable. Know what you feel like to wait on a scape to make flowers ... seems like I waited on Bullseye and Red Dragon for months. Thought all the crosses I wanted to do would run out of flowers ...