Muscari 'Blue Boy' and 'Valerie Finnis'
totototo@telus.net (Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:53:12 PDT)

According to the website of the Mt. Tahoma nursery

2487 MUSCARI `BLUE BOY’ H-5” A compact hybrid with beautiful sky
blue flowers on strong stems. Bred by Molly Grothaus of Lake
Oswego, OR. This plant does not self sow for us. Increases from
offsets. F,r,s,t. $5.00

http://backyardgardener.com/mttahoma/tahoma2.html/

My own experience is different; it has self-seeded with reasonable
freedom and many of the seedlings are a dark blue, rather than the
sky blue of the Real Thing.

'Blue Boy' is superficially similar to 'Valerie Finnis', but on close
inspection I find it differs:

shape of inflorescence: Blue Boy, something like Marge Simpson's big
hair; Valerie Finnis, distinctly conical.

scent: Valerie Finnis has a much more pronounced scent than Blue Boy.
(You have to hold your nose quite close to the flowers to get the
scent.)

Because of many seedlings of Blue Boy come true in color, the 'Blue
Boy' I used for these comparisons may be a self-sown seedling.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island