I thought or at least I am hoping to start a thread showing some unusually coloured, patterned, or marked lilies.

I had this seedling bloom for the first time this year and the first thing I thought was, "well that's different". Now, I can't wait to see it again this year and hopefully as a larger more mature plant. Not sure why, but when I look at the photo the word Mango comes to mind.

I hope any of you who have what you think is an unusually coloured, etc. lily seedling or named one would be willing to share a photo of it here as well. I know we have had some unusual beautiful lilies shown so far, but a few more would be great!

Jim

Ooohh - I have a few seedlings that I think might be called unusual in colour, but as a euphemism for ugly! Will take me a while to dig up pics. Hope we get to see some more beauties before then!

I think the ancestry of a "well that's different" candidate needs to be known (if known) to realize the true awe factor.

For instance, Baby Pink Bells jumps to mind. One that certainly qualifies for the moniker, in my opinion, as it is asiatic. But what if it had been the result of a cross with a Nomocharis species? Of course the feat itself would be momentous,
but an outcome like Baby Pink Bells would be less surprising.

Rick,
You wanted to know the parents - I thought someone might ask so I looked them up. Here they are. The pod parent (first photo) is the red/pink bicolour and the other pink bicolour (second photo) the pod parent. The pod parent is quite short and I have had this seedling for years -possibly 20. It is an out to mostly down facing. I have always found it attractive, but it is just too short really - maybe 15 inches or so with 5 or 6 flowers. If I remember correctly it is a seedling of 'Black Velvet' crossed with 'Sterling Star' or possibly 'Sancere' although because of its age I think it is probably 'Sterling Star'.
The second seedlling is probably in my opinion one of the most beautiful seedlings I have. It is over 5 feet tall and is an upfacing lily. It has a nice stem of flowers all well placed and has the lily 'Giraffe' in its background (I may show it and its two sisters later).
I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised at the outcome, but I think it was just what I thought was kind of an unusual pairing of colours.
Why the cross? I guess I wanted to see if I could get a taller version of the pod parent and I will have to wait til this season to see if I did.
Jim

A few more from the past few seasons.
Jim

You have such diversity in your lily repertoire, Jim!

I'm a sucker for any lily that looks like it was made with the spin art at the fair. Like that first one.

And I've thought about how the fuzzy white nectaries look like snow, and wondered about how they might possibly look like a snowflake. With that dark third one, you're on the way!

On that last one, what a beautiful variegation pattern!

Thanks, Rick. As far as the snowflake look that seedling is getting there, but it doesn't have the frosting like its seedling pod parent - first photo. I want that much only on a strong plant with almost black flowers - might as well shoot for the moon. That last one has me excited, but still a bit somehow uneasy about the markings. Its markings again are better than its pod parent to which I have crossed it back to so should see flowers on those possibly not this season, but in a year and a half. There is a bit of a story with that last one which I hope to finish with the blooming of these new seedlings.

Wow - amazing frosting! I love the petal colour too. If it were recurved and pendant (as well as healthy and vigorous), it would be perfect!

A flower with obvious problems! I'll keep it a while though because of the stippling - something I haven't noticed before in lilies - and see if the pattern passes on to kids with better form. It comes from a 'bee' or wind or whatever pod on My Joann (sp?).

I am not surprised that you already have such snowflake genes, Jim. I really meant it when I said you have such a diverse repertoire!

Yes, shoot for the moon!
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But Della, if the frosting was on a pendant lily, you would hardly see it......

Just some lilies in the garden, Jim really liked the one with the white center...very cool.

Della,
Is this what you meant by stippling?
Jim

Yes exactly, that's a good example. What's the background of that seedling, Jim?

Oh boy, that is a good question, Della. I initially got the seedling in the first photo below from a friend who had stopped by Fred Fellners place - a hybridzer in Alberta - and picked up some seedlings which she brought home for her garden here in Saskatoon. I just happened to stop by before she had them planted and had a look at them. I noticed that one of the seedlings had flowers with this kind of light coloured "feathered" pattern. I got kind of excited about it and asked if I could have a bulb of it. She had picked up quite a few seedlings (flowering whole plants) from him so she said I could go ahead and take it - we do a lot of trading plants, seeds, etc. Anyway, I brought it home and planted it. I remember at the time thinking hmmm… are the markings the result of a virus or what? I still couldn't help being excited about the seedling though. So, I pollinated a flower on it the next year and eventually planted out a few seedlings. None of the seedlings from the cross showed the markings which was kind of disappointing, but the stippled seedling (photo two) was in this first group of seedlings. I thought it was kind of interesting, so I put it in a bed of selected seedlings. The next year this same stippled seedling now showed the "feathered" pattern which kind of blew me away - very strange indeed. I crossed it back to its "feathered" parent this past fall and now have about 20 seedlings up from the cross. Now, virus are not supposed to be tranfered via seed so I should in theory be able to rule out tulip breaking virus. There are now tulips with this same pattern on the market that do not carry this virus which in fact was responsible for the "feathered" pattern on the very very early tulips (1800s ?) with this pattern that at the time sold for a fortune.
I am now going to have to wait for this second generatin or F2 to see if this pattern shows up in the seedlings - fingers crossed.
Guess this answer got a bit long, but hope I answered the question you asked.
I know something strange happening that I hope to have the answers to at some point.

Jim, have you created any ugly lilies? I'm sure they are hard to come by, only ones I'm not a fan of are the doubles and the weird ones, or should I say the "novelty" ones. Like 'Mistery dream' and 'Scoubidoo'

JimSaskatoon said:I remember at the time thinking hmmm… are the markings the result of a virus or what?

Jim - I don't think this is virus. I have had the benefit of visiting Bob Griesbach's fields in bloom and I saw this type of coloring in his OT's. Granted the genes are completely different in this group of lilies but the color pattern of stripling is very similar. He would plant seedlings in groups and in a seedling group you would see a range of this from a very "mottled" pattern to a almost perfect solid coloring. It would be easy to argue I am comparing apples to oranges, but the color pattern shown here looks similar to what I observed in his OT's.

That is reassuring. Thanks.
Jim

Color 'blotching' is most likely to be observed with maiden blooms of F1 hybrids and can manifest itself on either the face or reverse. Most times it disappears with the second or third blooming cycle--but not always. I still have a 10 year old +/- growing here as a example to show only. I never tried to breed it out as I consider it a bad feature and those that show it after the second or third year are culled and destroyed. It differs from virus in that a color break caused by a virus reads through the petal from face to reverse. The blotching or blemish occurs only on the surface and does not go all the way through. I should note that my observations are with my work with Div. VI.

It's a good tip Lorn, to know to look if the dubious feature is on the surface or all the way through. That will help me because currently every little blemish gives me a virus scare!

I find both the feathering and stippling interesting. Jim, I have some Fellner seedlings here grown from exchange seed and one of them, though not really stippled, looked to me as though it could produce stippled seedlings:

Yes, Lorn, thank you for the information regarding the characteristics of the tulip breaking virus. I kind of thought the same thing from the virus infected lilies I have seen, but wasn't really sure. In my opinion, it would seem that these markings on my seedlings would be more suited to asiatic hybrids than those of Div XI.
I am not really sure at this point, but I will have to take it a bit further to satisfy my curiosity.
The initial seedling here continues to have the marking for a number of years now, but time will tell on its seedling.

Thanks again,
Jim