Another favorite hybridizer of mine is Dick Bazett. 'Pink Jazz' is one of my favorite lilies

'Bonnie Jean'

I LOVE Pink Jazz! Is it a trumpet or OT?

It is an OT, Neal.

Thanks Connie, looks like one I should get! I haven't acquired any lilies for a few years now, and I think its time to remedy that. Over the years a few have dwindled or disappeared (probably due to rodent activity). Interestingly, Asiatics and Orientals have seen the most dramatic decline in numbers, while OTs and LA hybrids have demonstrated the most vigor and longevity.

Pink Jazz looks lovely. One of those I wish we could get here in Aus!

Lots of great names being thrown around here & I have seedlings from nearly all!.. Thanks everyone!

Joebass said:I love the north hybrids. Ever get anything with these in breeding?

I too am curious about that

Karen North is supposed to be the most fertile, but I have never grown any of them to flower yet. Have lost them somewhere along the way. Still worth trying though.

There are some who have gotten seed using tetraploid Asiatic pollen but they used embryo rescue to grow them as they did not make normal seed.

I still have a couple seedling from Karen North. They are not vigorous, though, and I had mentioned in an older post above that they ought to be flowering by now, in actuality they are still far from it.

Made several intentional crosses pollenating Karen North in 2017, yielding about a dozen seeds that look good, but we'll see what happens.

These pics from 2016
Karen North pod and contents ........ Karen North chaff, looks good seed, pod, questionable seed.


Questionable seed. ........ Looks good seed.

Excitedly , I pull up a ghost post. A while back , I inherited some of the estate of seeds , from Brian Dutton (Launceston Tasmania) a damn great lover of liliums . He inherited Joe Hoells , estate of seeds. I found a cryptic packet , labelled " Joes seeds" , these are 2 flowering for the first time , in a long time. im so happy

Special seeds indeed Anthony. Proof that sharing moves things forward, even after your your own life has passed. They are quite lucky to have had these seeds land in your hands, one who grows lilies so well.

I'll add my experience breeding with the North Hybrids. As Tracey stated, 'Karen North' is mentioned in articles as the most fertile of the group. I tried pollinating it many times, to no avail. But in 2005, I pollinated another North hybrid, 'Eros', with a mix of pollen from various Griesbach tetraploid Asiatics. I got three seed, and one germinated and eventually bloomed. No embryo culture used. I'll upload a picture of both 'Eros' and then two pictures of my hybrid. There is no doubt this one seedling is this cross as stated, as the revolute flowers, statuesque inflorescence, and fine spotting of lankongense and its North hybrid offspring all came though. It has persisted all these years in my garden, even as all the North hybrids are long gone. I have in turn pollinated my hybrid ten different years again with mixes of pollen from Griesbach tet Asiatics. A dribble of seed resulted each year, most of which I kept throwing in the freezer. In 2019 I tried this cross again and got back nearly 100 decent looking seed. So this winter I finally pulled all of the seed out of the freezer from all the crosses made with it, bulked the seed and sowed. I now have a flat with close to 250 seedlings up. Success! I'll report out as these bloom in 2-3 years. The lankongense traits will of course be even further diluted out. But the decent fertility from my hybrid is a good reason for any of you still growing the North hybrids to keep pollinating away on them! It just takes one seed...
'Eros'

That's a wonderful result, Jim. I'm sure the weather plays a part in how much seed is set in a given year.