Have any of you crossed sibling seedlings with good results? This year I had several instances of siblings with beautiful faces with very low bud counts, and plain looking sibs with fantastic plant habits. I've already successfully crossed some of them, and plan to try with others next season. I'd love to see of photos of seedlings that have come from sib crosses.

Also what registered cultivars do you know of that have sib crosses in the background?

@shive1
Diploids or tetraploids? There are basic genetic differences in what we would expect from sibling crosses in the two types. Diploid sibling crosses are expected on average to have much stronger inbreeding depression. This might appear as the scape heights might be low, bud counts low, rate of increase low, etc. There should be much less of a problem, if any noticeable, with tetraploid sibling crosses.

Thanks for the info, Maurice. I'm breeding tets.

Debra, my focus this year was on crossing siblings and plants with a parent in common, and crosses where I where I circled back to cross with one of the parents because I was curious about this. I'll let you know what I find out in two or three years.

Tim - I'll be looking forward to the results of your sibling experiments in the future. I think Mort Morss did some sibling crosses with his patterned lines, and I know he crossed a lot of seedlings that had Julie Newmar as one of the parents.Marilyn Morss Johnson was the result of crossing three seedlings with Julie Newmar as a parent. I'm not sure what other hybridizers did this, but it sure makes sense to me.