Moraea hybrids update 2018, and a video tour

Moraea hybrids update 2018, and a video tour
Sarah Hinckley (Thu, 06 Sep 2018 22:33:41 PDT)

Mike,

Your moraeas are amazing! I really enjoyed this, not only for the
beautiful flowers, but for the glimpse into what the whole plants look
like and also how you grow them. I'm looking forward to seeing how the
corms you sent me last year do this year - it was such fun to get a few
blooms from them last winter.

If you have any ideas on how to replicate your conditions in a
greenhouse, I'd love to hear them. Right now, mine are in pots...I'm in
zone 7a in the PNW, so growing them outside wouldn't work.

thanks!

Sarah

On 9/3/2018 2:59 PM, Michael Mace wrote:

Folks,

If you're not interested in hybrids, move along fast to the next message.

I've posted the highlights from my Moraea-hybridizing activity for the year.
There were many new flowers, including some interesting color combinations
and lots of streaks and dots. I'm also getting closer to a red flower, which
is one of my big goals.

https://growingcoolplants.blogspot.com/2018/09/…

Growing these plants in raised beds (technically they're screenhouses)
continues to be much more successful for me than pots. I'm up to six beds
now (building one a year to hold the new seeds), and they're all performing
well. I think the number of blooms in the first bed is starting to decline,
and if that continues I'll probably re-dig it in a future summer. But even
if they last just six years, it's a lot better than replanting every three
years, which is what I had to do with pots.

This year I made a video of the plants when they were at peak bloom. You'll
see not just hybrids, but video of some of my favorite species, including
the rich purple and blue M. gigandra, a bright orange selection of M.
neopavonia sold by Gordon Summerfield, a couple of M. tripetala forms, and
an unbelievably vivid magenta M. villosa.

If you want to visit the growing beds on a bright breezy spring day, here's
your chance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=gW6LzsVoPJg

I am glad to share hybrid and species seeds for free if anyone's interested
(drop me a note at my address above; do not reply to the list). I'll ask you
to make a donation to the PBS so I'm not competing with the seed exchange.

As always, I would love to get advice from any other growers or hybridizers.
I'm an amateur experimenting more or less at random.

And I'm on the lookout for some additional Moraea species that aren't in
general cultivation. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. My wish
list is here:

https://growingcoolplants.blogspot.com/2016/05/…

Thanks,

Mike

San Jose, CA

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