Folks: This is fascinating to hear about the xAmargyia crosses, but is anyone trialing them outdoorfor winter hardiness in regions where winter temps reach the low single digits F? We are encouraged by our success with the Dutch clone and would love to try more outside, but would like to hear from others who have tried them in colder climates. Also, I'm still hoping that someone can id the pink Dutch clone that I mentioned earlier. Thanks. Tony Avent Plant Delights Nursery @ Juniper Level Botanic Garden 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F USDA Hardiness Zone 7b email tony@plantdelights.com website http://www.plantdelights.com/ phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Michael Mace Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 2:08 AM To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [pbs] Early results from cross-breeding Les Hannibal's Amaryllis I'm finally getting flowers from some crosses I made of Amaryllis hybrids from Les Hannibal. The results are puzzling, and I'd love to get suggestions or words of wisdom from the Amaryllis and plant breeding experts on the list. Quick background for people who joined the list recently: About 10 years ago, the late Les Hannibal permitted a number of us to dig Amaryllis bulbs from his backyard. These were the extras from decades of breeding he had done -- he threw surplus seeds down the hill and let them grow anywhere. I ended up with about 50 bulbs, a mix of whites, light pinks, dark pinks, etc. You can see pictures of some of them here: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… (you'll need to scroll down a bit) I am not a professional plant breeder, but I wanted to see if I could make some improved forms from the bulbs Mr. Hannibal gave me: match the superior size of one plant with the color of another, stuff like that. So I started making crosses. Now 10 years later, the first of those crosses are finally blooming. I am trying to figure out what controls flower color in these plants, based on the limited knowledge of genetics I got from taking a couple of bio courses in college. In other words, I am a rank amateur, and I'm getting really confused because the flowers don't appear to be acting the way the textbooks say they should. Here's what I am seeing: 1. Crossing a pink flower and a white flower generally produces a majority of pink flowers and a minority of white flowers. I don't have enough blooming bulbs to have a statistically accurate sample yet, but so far it looks like the ratio is about 3:1 or 4:1 pink to white. 2. Crossing a mid-pink flower with a dark pink flower produces mostly pink flowers that are intermediate in color between the two parents, plus a minority of white flowers. Again, the ratio might be about 3:1 or 4:1 pink to white. 3. In one case, crossing a dark pink flower with a white flower produced all white seedlings. This is especially weird because the pink flower was the seed parent, so these can't be apomixic seeds (clones of the seed parent). Unless of course I screwed up my notes and switched the seed and pollen parent. But I was pretty careful. Anyway, here's what I think the results are telling me: --The ratio of pink to white flowers implies that pink color is dominant over white color. --However, I don't know what to make of the fact that the pink shades average out when they're crossed, rather than one being dominant over the other. What is this telling me? --The fact that I got some whites by crossing two pinks implies that both of those pinks had recessive genes for white, right? Since one of the pinks I crossed was my darkest pink, I don't know whether any of my bulbs have pure pink color genes in them. --I can't figure out how a cross of a pink and white flower would produce all white flowers, unless in this case white is dominant. But could a gene be recessive in some cases and dominant in others? I'm really confused. Would any of the experts out there care to comment? Any advice? And can anyone recommend a good book or website on plant breeding and genetics that might help me figure out what I'm seeing? Thanks, Mike San Jose, CA