Nerine Seed sent to PBX

Hamish Sloan hamish.sloan@virgin.net
Mon, 26 Jan 2004 13:02:00 PST
Hello All,

For those of you interested in the nerine seed I sent, some details. My apologies for mthe small quantities. I am afraid other matters had my attention when I should have been doing the rounds with my camel hair brush. All of the seed are open pollinated so that only the female parent is known. The pollen parent may be the same or a different hybrid. You will have to take the descriptions of colours with my pinch of salt if they do not accord with other people's reports!!!!

SARNIENSIS hybrids

Belladonna - White with wide phlox-pink edges. A strong impression of stipiness and an eye-catching flower.

Blanchfleur - White , .... and what a white. Large flowers on a full head, long scape. Where many sarniensis hybrids have ruffled edges to the petals, this hybrid has ruffles that go across the outer half of the petal. I do not know if this is general or just my clone. I find it a distinguishing feature compared  to other whites.

Brahms - Dark and pale salmon bicolour.

Canasta - Shell pink, longish stems at 18". Free-flowering .

Carnival - Purplish red, hints of violet.

Caroline - Soft salmon shading to white at centre. Flowers easily and multiplies readily. I have got this to bear seed readily in the past too.

Catherine - reliable flowering and quite good at multiplying. Salmon pink, very little curling on the egdes of the petals, sets seed easily with some other pollens.

Catkin - It does increase to flowering size rapidly.

Clarabel - white with a red vein. First time flowered for me - needs to settle in well to get into flowering stride perhaps.

Clarissa - Pink. A good form flower. From the same female parent (Margaret Rose x Moscow) as Clarabel.

Coralina - Coral pink, darker central stripe, many smaller flowers in a good ball head.

Diane Oliver - Lost my notes on this one and its a recent addition to my collection, though I suspect not a recent hybrid.

Doris Vos - Very deep pink with salmon stripe, edges tinged mauve. Boundary between the colours hazy. Some sheen but not strong.21" stem.

Druid - From memory (reliability???) red but not as good a red as Wolsey.

Hanley Castle - a very recent hybrid from Newchurch Nerines who obtained half of Tony Norris' collection. It may be one of Tony's hybrids as Hanley Castle is a small village near his former home. Pale pink, evenly coloured flower, fine sparkle points. Just enough water to prevent 'dust dry'.

Hamlet - reddish purple with a lighter red stripe down the middle. Striking!

Juliet Berkeley - red. Does not like to be disturbed and needs some care in the dormant season - only a very, very little water to prevent the roots shrivelling, but it is easy to give too much and the roots rot! 

Kyoto - mid-red, good looking, very open flower head due long pedicels.

Lambourne - Light orangey-pink with a darker shade for the stripe. Free-flowering.

Lawlord - Free-flowering, long-stemmed, light red with an orange stripe, gold fine sparkle.

Lyndhurst Salmon - Free-flowering salmon pink.

Maria - dark salmon stripe on salmon pink flower, a wide petalled flower, a reliable flowering bulb.

Meadowbankii - Vermilion, strong gold sparkle.

Mertoun - Multiplies readily as well as flowering regularly. Seems to grow to flowering size quickly - my offsets are generally left in situ. However, the flowering size bulbs take some disturbance (e.g. potting on) without any hitch. "... well rounded full head over 5" in diameter makes a neat ball of brilliant deep pink, almost cerise, flowers." (Quote is taken from Tony Norris in Jane Taylor's "Collecting Garden Plants" about NCCPG collections.) Fairly strong golden sheen.

Mrs Barclay - (sometimes listed as Mrs Berkeley, but I suspect this is not the correct spelling) Deep scarlet, regular flowering and quick to grow to flowering size.

Orange Queen - a good flower. My one flowering size bulb gave two scapes and set seed well without my assistance/interference. A bright, outstanding flower with good specular refraction.

Red Emperor - Florets on the smaller side but a nicely formed head. My bulb is only just at flowering size and it is on the small side for a nerine bulb, so it may improve in size with further development. Not a scarlet red like Wolsey (which did not flower this year), and darker than Uncle A.

Sunset Frills - Grows to flowering size quickly.

Uncle A - Red. Not the cardinal red of Wolsey and not such a strong red as Druid. Fine golden sheen over the whole petal. Much crinkling of the petals.

Vestal - white, some florets showing a very slight pink shading on the 'bottom' third of the petals, this being particularly the first opening florets. This pink quickly disappears with age.

White Swan - a good wide petalled, rounded head. No other colour to mar the white.

BL10 - unnamed hybrid ex Blackmore & Langdonwhen they gave up on nerine. Reliable flowering bulb, white ground with deep pink stripe (darker than Uncle A x Jill hybrids and a more pronounced stripe).

LL11 - Lost label!!! but it is vary like Maria and probably a seedling from the same. My note to Dell that it is an Uncle A x Jill hybrid was my rotten memory again.

Uncle A x Jill - my own first attempt at crossing. Obtained 11 seedlings. Of these #5 is probably a self-set seedling of Uncle A as it is a slightly lighter red colour than its female parent and the sparkle is similarly fine. The others, so far, are all white ground with pink central stripe and pink edges, mid-sized sparkle points, showing some variations in the intensity nof the pink colouration. I have sent seed from #1, 3, 5,

BOWDENII hybrids

Stefanie - note the 'f'.  The name with 'ph' is a different, sarniensis-based, hybrid. And the colour has slipped my mind till I find my notes! Picked this up at my local garden centre as one of those risks that ought to be ignored. However, one of the two bulbs wasn't rotten and it is multiplying nicely. At present I have it inside till I have enough bulbe to put outside while maintaining a safety stock inside. It should be hardy enough for this part of the UK (zone 9-ish).

SPECIES

Nerine bowdenii alba - one of my 3 clones, possibly all different and I know of two others that are probably different clones. This is the expected very pale pink, easy flowering, probably more easy than N. bowdenii itself.

Nerine pudica - the (common) white form. Notable for the different shape of the floret. I find this species (or is it my clone?) to be a regular , reliable flowerer, usually 3 to 5 florets on a scape, but the bulb will flower when quite small and it multiplies easily.


Sorry that this has taken so long. Too much else on at the moment.

Regards Hamish
Middle South of England, Zone 9ish. Been very wet of late but now dry and colder (for some of you with your common experiences, let me change that last word to cooler!).


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