Hepatica 2022

[Carsten]

Crossing partners: Hepatica nobilis 'Jurakönigin' x nobilis maiden. Very rare with nobilis - as far as I know - the colour combination blue and rose.



Hepatica japonica 'Sugo mori' - something like 'amazing forest'

[Herman Mylemans]

Carsten, great Hepatica's! The first flower of new seedlings is always exciting. From your F2 seedlings, I sowed the reeds last year and germination is starting. But I need to be patient to see the first flower.
The greenish  one is indeed very special!

[Gabriela]

Every day new seedlings open their flowers for the first time. Always the most exciting part of the season.
And a step forward for my breeding program to produce a blue filled fleckled nobilis is a maiden form out of a crossing with 'Bavarian Blue' and a maiden Schlyter's form.

I hope you will be successful Carsten. Those are pollen grains on your picture, I suppose you already pollinate it?

The combination of blue and rose on the same flower is also something not usual for H. americana. There are some flowers with the usual (in my area) violet tinge which have more blue on them but not the distinct blue/pink on the same flower.

[Carsten]

Yes Gabriela, I pollinated it before I took the picture and then covered it with a mesh bag right away. The pollen is from another cross with Bavarian Blue and a double form. 

[Herman Mylemans]

Hepatica x media ‘Buis’

[Carsten]

Some Hepatica nobilis seedlings ex. pink/white maiden ...







... and a bicoloured nobilis 'Cremar x Ederka'



Finally another seedling ex. pyrenaica alba x 'Bolette', a bicoloured supercentra typ

[Gabriela]

Hepatica x media ‘Buis’

That's a cutie Herman. I also have this one (purchased as 'Blue Jewel') but has not increased so nicely like yours; maybe I move it too many times.

[Gabriela]

Yes Gabriela, I pollinated it before I took the picture and then covered it with a mesh bag right away. The pollen is from another cross with Bavarian Blue and a double form. 

With so much 'double blood' a doubled freckled seedlings is sure to be obtained soon.

Nice maidens and bicoloured! It seems H. nobilis is predisposed to form maiden forms. I may be wrong, but from the few H. nobilis seedlings I grew a few years ago (random seeds received) I got at least 3 maidens.
H. americana rarely shows maiden forms.

[Carsten]

With so much 'double blood' a doubled freckled seedlings is sure to be obtained soon.

Nice maidens and bicoloured! It seems H. nobilis is predisposed to form maiden forms. I may be wrong, but from the few H. nobilis seedlings I grew a few years ago (random seeds received) I got at least 3 maidens.
H. americana rarely shows maiden forms.

At least, you have a good chance to breed maiden forms from a maiden plant. Some crosses even produce a 100% rate.

[Leena]

Carsten, really nice results in bicolour seedlings. I sowed seeds from one bicolour H.nobilis I got in 2020 in April, it had seedpods when it arrived, and those seeds germinated last spring. It will be interesting to see what they are going to be like when they flower in couple of years time. Right now they are  in ground, still under about 30cm of snow, as everything is here this year.

Gabriela, it is interesting what you wrote about maiden forms. I like them very much.

[Gabriela]

At least, you have a good chance to breed maiden forms from a maiden plant. Some crosses even produce a 100% rate.

Thanks Carsten, I didn't know about this. It is almost impossible to do controlled pollination with plants in the ground, but now I will know the reason if more maiden forms appear around
I tried two years ago to dab some pollen from a multipetal acutiloba on a nobilis maiden and sowed the seeds in a pot, but who knows what pollen actually arrived on the maiden (I didn't enclosed the flowers in a bag).

H. acutiloba can be found with maiden forms here and there but I noticed the flowers are very small in that case.

[Gabriela]

Carsten, really nice results in bicolour seedlings. I sowed seeds from one bicolour H.nobilis I got in 2020 in April, it had seedpods when it arrived, and those seeds germinated last spring. It will be interesting to see what they are going to be like when they flower in couple of years time. Right now they are  in ground, still under about 30cm of snow, as everything is here this year.

Gabriela, it is interesting what you wrote about maiden forms. I like them very much.

We are also still with snow Leena, but this week double digits are predicted!!! And last week I was able to open my cold frame for the first time, all was frozen solid but OK.
Maiden forms are interesting and certainly good for crosses. I prefer the look of the flowers with many/long anther filaments though.
Last year when I saw another maiden flowering, nice foliage too, I was: what? another maiden 

[Upico]

Some Hepatica nobilis seedlings from open pollination.

[Upico]

Hep. nobilis

[Upico]

Hepatica nobilis var. jap. f. jap. 'Konohana' by A.Händel in the Waldgarten since 2017.