Dichelostemma 'Pink Diamond'
Jane McGary (Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:57:18 PDT)

Dichelostemma 'Pink Diamond' is a widely distributed commercial variety
that closely resembles Dichelostemma ida-maia (the "firecracker flower")
except in color: 'Pink Diamond' has lavender-pink tubular flowers with
paler lobes, and ida-maia has flowers with a scarlet tube and yellowish or
pale greenish lobes. It has been stated by growers that 'Pink Diamond' is a
form of D. x venustum, a natural hybrid between ida-maia and D. congestum.
This hybrid is reported to be sterile.

The back story of 'Pink Diamond' is that it was given to the Dutch bulb
grower Wim de Goede by Wayne Roderick, who told Wim it was D. x venustum.
This puzzled me, because several years earlier David Hale had shown me a
plant given to him by Wayne as D. x venustum that was very different:
bright violet rather than pinkish, and the flower less tubular, shorter and
a little more flaring. The color of David's plant conforms to the botanical
description better than the color of 'PD' does, but one would expect color
variation in hybrids.

Now I have flowering SEEDLINGS of 'PD', demonstrating that it is not
sterile, at least when grown near other Dichelostemmas (perhaps it is
self-sterile). Some seedlings' flowers, and some are scarlet,
indistinguishable from D. ida-maia. None differ from ida-maia and 'PD' in
flower form, although D. congestum is growing nearby and flowering at the
same time.

Is 'Pink Diamond' really only a color form of D. ida-maia?

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA