My oldest 2016 seedlings

[waldo]

I just thought that I would share a tray of seedlings that I have selected for further evaluation. They are: back row Curly Fries X OP, The Razor's Edge X OP and Spilt Milk X OP front row Yoshinogawa X plantaginea, (Sharon's Choice X OP) X OP and Spilt Milk X OP. Both pic's are of the same plants. I am working on flower improvement, so I don't have large numbers of variegated plants. I have many streaked seedlings to use for breeding after I have improved flowers (hopefully). If you look closely in the second photo, you can see the last plant in the first row has the same type of variegation as the pod parent Spilt Milk. I am sorry that I don't have better photographic skills.

[Pieter]

How old are these seedlings, Waldo?

[waldo]

Pieter the seeds to the hostas were sown the first week of November and placed on a heat mat. Germination is usually very fast with the mat, one to two weeks. So these plants were up and growing by mid November 2016, making them about three months old. I just took a couple of pictures of my youngest seedlings for comparison, first pot is a group of Dostoyevsky selfed seedlings, seeds given to me by Ed McHugh and the second is a group of Mito-no-Hana X OP. These were sown on January 9, 2017 and placed on the same heat mat. This shows the difference the planting time can make. I like to sow early because a lot of the hosta will bloom the first year and I can actually gain a year in the evaluation process when working for improved flowers.

[Pieter]

Nice growth. I'm looking at sowing some seeds these week myself, but I ain't got no heat mat, it'll just be room temp. What is it your looking to improve in the flowers: shape, color, intensity, size?

[waldo]

Yes. I am working on all of these to one degree or another, I just have to sort them out into each category and go from there. I have been working with plantaginea for years, but it has it's own pitfalls, for example low germination rates and very low if any seed set after f1. I just bought the heat mat this year. In years past I just started like you at room temperature. One thing that is easy and a big help, provided you get no objections from other family members is to put them on the top of the refrigerator. The temperature is a few degrees higher there.

[ViolaAnn]

I've finally finished sorting my seeds and starting those I want to try. Last year I tried germinating them in small, sealed plastic bags on moist coffee filter. After a couple of weeks I looked and was able to lift out those that had germinated and place them in moist soil and I had the best success I have ever had in germinating. I got about half my seeds into little bags last week and the other half today.

[waldo]

Just an update, two photos of the beginning of a flower scape on one of the hostas (Curly Fries X OP) in my original picture posted to this thread. So a few more weeks and then I can evaluate the flower and decide if I keep it or not.