My favorite Moraea hybrids, 2022

[Michael Mace]

Hi, gang.
 
I've been breeding Moraea hybrids in earnest for a bit more than a decade, and I'm continuing to be impressed by the diversity of colors and patterns in the hybrids. I want to share my favorite new hybrids from spring 2022 (this also gives me a chance to test out the image enclosure feature in the shiny new forum software; it would have been very difficult to create this post in the email forum). Hope you'll enjoy it...
 
MM 19-132a. In my relentless pursuit of a pure red Moraea hybrid, I haven't yet had total success, but I'm starting to get a few pinky-raspberry colored flowers that I really like. This one is especially nice because of the interesting rough markings around the edge of the eye.
 
MM 19-26b.  A nice orange color contrasted with very intense blue spots. It looks as if a fountain pen exploded.
 
MM 19-26d. Believe it or not, this is a sibling of the spotted flower above. There are no spots on this flower, but the color pattern on it is so precise and intricate that it's kind of hypnotic.
 
MM 18-193a. I have a several hybrids that have purple streaks on the tepals, but this is the first with orange streaks. They're faint, but it's an interesting start.
 
MM 18-264b.  This is a hybrid with the Piketberg form of Moraea villosa

, which I call villosa form O. The species has vivid blue eyes, but in this hybrid the eyes are an icy blue-white color. It really stands out when you see it in person. Unfortunately, this plant did not set seeds, and I think it may be sterile.
 
MM 18-333c. I've been gradually getting more hybrids with a smoky multicolored ring around the eye. This is a nice example....
 
MM 19-45b. ...as is this one.
 
MM 19-15a. Often my camera tries to make colors look more intense than they are in real life, but this flower really did look a lot like this when it opened.
 
MM 18-136b. I like the richness of the colors in this one.
 
MM 19-70a. This is another vivid one. There's Moraea lurida

in its ancestry, which turned the eyes black and made the inner tepals dark maroon.
 
MM 19-99a. The outer parts of the flower are the color of grape jelly, while the inner parts are pale orange. There's strange speckling in between. This one's more weird than beautiful, but I kinda' like weird.
 
MM 18-78a. The bright yellow eye edged in very dark blue is extremely unusual. This hybrid involves Moraea bellendenii

, which does strange things to the eyes of hybrids.
 
If you want to learn more, you can check out my blog. There are photos of the ~100 new crosses that bloomed this year, plus photos and info from previous years.  

I am not a professional breeder, and am intensely interested in any feedback or suggestions you have on my breeding program.
 
By the way, I set aside some seeds from this year's hybrids and plan to send them to the US PBS exchange when it reopens. So if you'd like to try some of these plants, this is a great time to become a paying PBS member.
 
Mike
San Jose, CA

[petershaw]

Beautiful plants!

I am just over the hill in Aptos, I hope your beds are doing okay with all this weather.

Peter

[Uli]

Hello Mike!

Very impressive pictures! Thank you very much for sharing. Hybrizing plants is a matter of personal preference and taste. I think some of the ones you show are worth to be grown by more people. Do I understand correctly that all seedlings are unique individuals? Or have you managed to create a (relatively) uniform stable hybrid which comes true from seed?

What will you do if you want to propagate a particularly outstanding seedling vegetatively? Do they offset? Are there other propagation techniques like splitting or the like? Or even micropropagation?

Uli 

[Michael Mace]

I hope your beds are doing okay with all this weather.

Thanks for the nice comment! The beds are OK so far; most of them are on a slope and that helps a lot. But the ground around them is totally saturated and so I can't walk around them much. The soil here is heavy clay and it's easy to lose your footing. 

I am hoping for a glorious wildflower and native bulb year this spring after all the rain. 

I think Aptos is getting even more rain than San Jose; hang in there!

[Arnold]

Mike

Stunning colors.

[Michael Mace]

What will you do if you want to propagate a particularly outstanding seedling vegetatively? Do they offset? Are there other propagation techniques like splitting or the like? Or even micropropagation?

Hi, Uli! I appreciate the nice comment.

Some of the hybrids offset, and I can gradually build up stocks of the corms that way. I have been moving my favorites into separate locations where they have room to increase. But increasing them this way is a long process and doesn't work with all of them. There probably are other ways to multiply the corms, but I've never tried any of them.

I don't have any reliable line-bred plants at this point. So when I share seeds, what I'm generally sharing are recent crosses that I think are promising. Y'all get to take the journey with me.

The exception is the species. I am doing my best to hand-pollinate them every year, and I try to plant a bit of seed from each species each year, so I have an ongoing backup supply of them. Some of the Moraea species have a disturbing tendency to stay happy for several years and then dwindle or disappear. I'm learning the hard way that I should constantly re-propagate them. I think Jane McG's excellent article in the latest Bulb Garden has it just right: Share seeds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it gives yo a chance of getting something back when it dies at your place.

[Emil]

I always drool over your photos Mike! Of the seeds you sent me two years ago, when I was just beginning to grow bulbs from seed, I lost all but one grex. Those are now growing in my front dry garden and I eagerly await the first blooms. -Emil

[Michael Mace]

Of the seeds you sent me two years ago, when I was just beginning to grow bulbs from seed, I lost all but one grex. Those are now growing in my front dry garden and I eagerly await the first blooms.

I'm sorry most of them didn't make it, Emil. If you're growing them in the ground I think the mortality rate is higher than in pots. If you want to try more seeds, drop me a note privately. Or make sure you're paid up on your PBS dues, and you might see something interesting in the next seed exchange... 

[Emil]

I started them in pots, and had decent germination but failed after that. The ones I put into the ground are doing ok--they're in part shade so they'll move a little slower than otherwise. I'd love to try again. My seed-propagation game has gotten much better!

[Bulbous]

Great plants Mike!  You are the Luther Burbank of Moraeas.  

[Michael Mace]

You are the Luther Burbank of Moraeas

I wish! I visited his experimental farm in Sebastopol CA last summer, and the guy operated on a scale that was superhuman.