July in the Northern Hemisphere

[Rick R.]

Robert, are you breeding hybrid tomatoes or strains?
  And if strains, how many generations until they reproduce true from seed?

[Robert]

Robert, are you breeding hybrid tomatoes or strains?
  And if strains, how many generations until they reproduce true from seed?

Hello Rick,

Now that I am retired I am working on open pollenated, open source varietals. With CRISPER and Gene Drive technologies I feel it is vital that the genomes of species remain pure. I have bred hybrid tomatoes in the past. Using single seed descent, 9 generations of inbreeding will generally produce a stable variety or a stable line to use as a parent in a F1 hybrid. There is some wiggle room with this depending on the original cross and there are tricks to speed the process. These days I, more or less, follow this process with some of my own variations.

Open source varieties are varieties that can be used by anyone as long as recognition is given to the creator of the variety. Unlike hybrids or patented varieties there are no property rights. These varieties can be used by subsistence farmers in Asia, South and Central America, or Africa without having to pay patent fees or royalties. The varieties can also be used to create new varieties.

Single seed descent can be used successfully with any inbreeding species. So, this technique could be used with any naturally inbreeding rock garden species to produce a stable variety that will come true from seed (as long as the line remains pure). Inbreeding species frequently benefit from out breeding, so it is important to think about what one wants to accomplish in a breeding project.

[Rick R.]

Thanks Robert!

[Leena]

Well I have lots of pics of H. citrina.  They really are at their best at night.

Rick, my H.citrina looks very similar, except yours is much more floriferous. Really nice!
Mine is not in full sun so maybe that is why there were not so much flowers.

None of them are happy that I'm still struggling to catch up with weeding! The simple fact is that I built more beds than I realistically have time to maintain! In an agricultural area, with lots of natural vegetation also, there is always a lot of blow in of seed, and many aggressive forage plants well established in mowed areas... oh well, thank goodness for close-ups and cropping

Cohan, you wrote just how it is also here! Too big garden and too many weeds to keep on top of them. Big perennials are better here because they can compete with weeds better in sunnier part of the garden. Woodland part is much easier to maintain:).
You have nice Erigerons!

Also the large number of bulbs I grow is a problem as I think Helenium need a situation where the young rosettes in spring have enough light.
I'm growing a few from seed so will keep trying....

You may be right about rosettes needing light. Most of my bulbous plants are in woodland part of the garden, in sunny part I have only Narcissus and some Tulips, because every spring (and summer) there is so much weeding to do that it is easier to try to keep the surroundings of bigger perennials free of other plants. If I ever get rid of the worst weeds like ground elder (probably never) then I want also more small bulbs in the sunny garden.
I have sown Heleniums couple of times and they have had very poor germination. Only couple of plants from potful of seeds, but still they are very nice. Maybe the poor germination is because the mother plants were named cultivars, maybe wild species would be better to grow from seeds.

[Herman Mylemans]

Leena are there Heleniums that remain lower than 50cm?

[Rick R.]

Yes, H. citrina is in full sun in my garden.That pic is actually from many years ago, before I started eating the flowers.  Eating the flowers has the added benefit of no dead heading and keeping the plant looking.  They are good tasting through the morning hours after the night they bloom (before they begin to shrivel). Also, the buds are not as good as the open flowers.

[Gabriela]

Catching up with the postings here - a great video Leena! It is nice to see so many butterflies in one place.

Re growing from seeds: most cv. are hybrids reason why not many seeds are produced; it is hard to find info about the parents, most tall cv. have some blood from H. autumnale.

My Heleniums are mostly finished, the garden decor in sunny areas is dominated now by Echinacea, Phlox, Lobelias, Eupatorium....and Centaurea orientalis which greatly enjoys the hot summer.

[Leena]

Thanks Gabriela.
Your garden looks so fresh and summery now:).

Leena are there Heleniums that remain lower than 50cm?

Mine are more than 1 meter tall, the tallest 1,7m.
The shortest is 'Siesta' which is just about 50cm. It was supposed to be even shorter so it may be also where it grows.
In MtCuba center trials it was rated very high and said to be a miniature cultivar.
https://mtcubacenter.org/trials/helenium/helenium-siesta/
'Siesta' is here only now starting to flower and will be in full bloom later in August.

[Herman Mylemans]

Thanks Gabriela.
Your garden looks so fresh and summery now:).

Mine are more than 1 meter tall, the tallest 1,7m.
The shortest is 'Siesta' which is just about 50cm. It was supposed to be even shorter so it may be also where it grows.
In MtCuba center trials it was rated very high and said to be a miniature cultivar.
https://mtcubacenter.org/trials/helenium/helenium-siesta/
'Siesta' is here only now starting to flower and will be in full bloom later in August.

Thank you Leena! Siesta belongs to the Mariachi series (compact plants), so I will look after them.

[cohan]

Rick- the H citrina, are really nice! The only day I have is an old orange cultivar first planted on the acreage herein the late 70's early 80's. I dug up most of the old bed as it was where I was expanding a rock garden but plopped a few here and there where they are slowly establishing.. I need to start eating some, as otherwise I mostly think of them as weeds...lol

Leena- the Erigerons are nice- E speciosus and E caespitosus are nice for having fairly long flower life before making seed- I also have the local E philadelphicus which established itself in the gardens and I perhaps foolishly helped it! It can make large plants with piles of flowers, but each flower is fairly short lived and makes seed almost instantly! Very nice in the garden, but better if not near any small plants...lol

Here's an old garden bed, started by my mom/aunt many years ago. They planted the Veronica which covers much of the bed, rugosa rose hybrids in centre; I added some Achillea cultivars around two sides, moved some Lychnis coronaria from elsewhere on the property, and some Symphytum/Comfrey just to one side of the bed. It's right at a turn/corner of the driveway/parking, so in winter it gets a huge pile of shovelled snow, up to 8-10 feet high and several or more metres across! The snow pile usu lasts from late Oct/early Nov into May. In summer it is in flower for months and literally buzzing with bees and other pollinators.