I really like the last one, that's my kind of lily

You have posted some amazing and unusual lilies, Hank. I think I love almost all of them and I agree fully with what Pard said about wishing to see more lilies like this on the market. I think one would be rather nuts not buying lilies looking like these, but that is of course just my personal opinion. Many thanks for sharing these smashing images

All are exceptionally nice flowers, Hank. I suppose being Asiatic they are pretty much garden hardy as well. And it's apparent to me you have a well thought out, managed program in place.

Lovely, lovely seedlings. Is GranCru the same as Grand Cru?

Kayleigh, yes GranCru = Grand Cru.

Lorn, I will respond to the 3 favorites question, just not prepared yet and it is something I have to think about.

I still have quite a few images to post including the OT seedlings

Taking me a bit more time to organize things

We all realize the effort your putting into these posts, Hank.

Believe me, you have all of our gratitude!

Yes, indeed! It takes up time, usually at the busiest time of the year during blooming and pollination--for me, anyway. And, for me, I've always found that the more pictures I post, the more questions I'm asked, etc. which in turn, take up more time. But we do the best we can, and it all comes out looking pretty good, I think.

Three favorites of the posted ones, this is difficult, but here goes. Number one has to be 98-51.

<<98-51 1a pure white with pinkish red brushmarks

This is from Heartfire x Beaudacious, a cross done in 1998.

X

Which leads to most of my brushmarks that have red to pink brushmarks rather than the dark brushmarks usually seen.




<<< And many others...

Note that all of the last group of photos have 98-51 (white w/ red pink brushmark) in their background. Most of these are a few generations from the original Heartfire x Beaudacious cross done in 1998. The photos are from many different crosses. There are also many from the crosses that have dark colored brushmarks which are also nice as they have both brushmarks and spots.

Hank I really like the different color combos in that cross. You've come up with some really neat lilies.

Amazing. To bad that your garden are too far away from me.

Just sooo beautiful. There's something mesmerising about a nice combination of clear green/white and pink. Great work.

It's amazing how a single cross 98-51 done in 1998 led to such an interesting path of discoveries. Each of these flowers, in it's own singular way is stunning beautiful. Although, my personal favorite would be the very last two, white with near red brush marks, only because I value such white-white as difficult to achieve. I have studied these flowers over at least five times and tried to imagine which would be best viewed from various distances of close, less than 3 feet, then intermediate 10, then distant 20 feet and beyond. Within the group you just posted, there several that would fit within the first two distances and a couple I think would show off way down the road.

I want to ask you a question about something I call 'color smear' when it comes to brush marks. Once it appears, can it be bred out of the brush marks? Is it as important to the Asiatic breeders as it is to me, one who works with Div. VI Trumpet-Aurelian when I'm trying to achieve a fine line of color separation. I work solely on Div.VI material, so I'm naturally curious about Asiatic behavior.

I haven't really thought about 'color smear' when hybridizing brushmark asiatics, Lorn. In the asiatics it does not concern me much as the contrast between the brushmark color and the background color are usually pretty distinct. I would have to look through my photos and my cross data to see where this occurs and if I have used any of the lilies to create further hybrids.

In the aurelians, where you are basically working with white / yellow / orange, I can see where it might make for some interesting and nice lilies with sharper color definition and contrast. I don't have very much experience in aurelian crosses. I am posting just a couple of my hybrids. I don't know if you would say the second pic shows color smearing? I was just after getting clean bright colors. I was trying for a good yellow centered white with nice form. I figured if it had red anthers it would be pretty nice. First pic is my cross making a near white star with a yellow center (opens pretty flat, has narrow petals though). The following generation I got what I was after. So this was produced with three crosses on my part. I have made seeds with the 2nd pictured seedling, but haven't planted any of them. Some have been given to the NALS seed exchange over the last few years, so others most likely have grown them.


Insofar as asiatic brushmarks, I thought I had everything pretty well figured out and could say that the dark colored markings are brushmarks and the lighter colors were not until the siblings shown below made me question this.

Hank, thanks for your detailed insight. It helps me understand a little more of how and what your working for, etc. With Aurelians, I work for nice uniform color release, mostly. It's when I get into more sunburst and trumpet forms where I get more involved with razor sharp edges of color borders. I'll illustrate that in a separate thread sometime in the near future.

Your last paragraph and photos struck me in awe! Really interesting.

Amazing work Hank.

Continuing with the 2nd most favorite of my lily seedlings.
<<=seedling 09-230 My JoAnn x Strawberries & Cream
Original thought for this cross came many many years prior with this seedling
<<=seedling 97-198 Latvia Promise x Alabaster Rose
A nice lily, but I was really looking for outfacing lilies along the pink/white with red tango spots, which I got with the 09-230 cross.
The 09-230 cross has lighter edges and a fuzzy white center. Now using it for these traits.
A few of the more recent crosses using 09-230

Love the frosted nectaries, especially picture # 2. How much variation in height and stem diameter have you experienced?

Love them!

Della and Lorn thanks !!

Hoping to get more of the frosted white nectaries in the latest group of seedlings that will flower this summer.

Lorn, it will take a while longer to see how these vary in height and stem diameters. At this point they are 1st and 2nd year seedlings in 1 gallon trade pots (which are less than 1 gallon). To really get to their full potential will take getting them into the ground. Currently I don't have the room to do that.

Just a couple interesting pix today.
<<<=Netties x sdlg 99-499
<<<=George Slate x sdlg 99-499
Same pollen parent for the above two seedlings.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the voles haven't gotten to this one.

I like the look of a picotee on the reverse of that last one.

I've grown all my lilies in pots for years, never knowing what potential they may reach in a good garden - you get used to it but sometimes it's nice to daydream about what they would be like in the garden. Last year I moved to a block of land and am slowly creating garden, but without reliable water and hungry hoppers it will be a while before I can put treasured seedlings out in the ground. Do you have an arrangement with anyone to field trial your seedlings, Hank?

And voles... will they climb into pots above the ground too? Maybe I'll keep my hoppers if I don't have deer and voles.