In a previous thread I showed a group of seedlings that had more or less non-recurved flowers. I later became interested in yellow martagons especially lighter or paler yellow coloured martagons as I thought they would look very good in a mixed perennial border. So I began to gather any yellow seedlings that showed up in my hybridizing. Here are some of those - pictured below.

Ok, now that I had gathered up my yellow martagon seedlings, I was ready for the next step of creating yellow martagon seedlings that were spotless and had relatively non-recurved flowers and also plants with a good stem of flowers on them.
I started off crossing some of the gathered yellow seedlings with a good white unspotted seedling with non-recurved flowers - see first photo below.
So this is some of what I've managed to get up to this point. I suppose I might be looking for even more of a non-recurved flower, but this is a good way toward achieving what I was looking for. I have yet to put any of these in my perennial borders as I am waiting for the clumps to bulk up first. You will notice that some are very light yellow and the occasianal seedling with flowers with yellow "faces" and white on the reverse which adds a bit of interest too. I suppose I like the yellows that are more of a lemon yellow i.e. with some green in the yellow. Oh, you may also notice in some of the photos of the seedlings, that some of the seedlings have flowers that start off as nearly pure white flowers, but age to a soft yellow quite quickly.
Jim

And I am marveling at all those perfectly shaped pedicels, too!

Did you use the white non-recurved form as the pollen parent in all cases?

Rick, I did have another larger flowered non-recurved white that believe it or not I somehow misplaced. It was very similar to the one in the photo.
Pedicels - There have been other unspotted yellows hybridized by a few others, but I believe most had fairly crowded inflorescences and so I was also trying to improve on that aspect as well. The longer lamppost pedicels went a long way to helping with that. A couple of these seedlings are close to six feet tall.
Are you doing some work with the martagons as well?
I am doing a bit of work with dark flowered martagons as well like this one I call 'High Contrast' because of the light reverse and dark face.
Thanks for the comments.
Jim

I forgot to include this yellow seedling from similar breeding. As you can see I has very unusual doubled, tripled or more leaf whorls. I will be watching it this year to see if it continues this growth habit. Interesting trait if it does - not sure if it is good or bad or just interesting.
Jim

I love the disposition of the leaves!

Those extra leaf whorls are very exciting! Even if they don't return next season, the tendency is still there to possibly work with in the future.
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I don't have enough space to grow a respectable number of progeny to breed with. But I do hybridize with what I have and am consequently happy with the results. You may recall from the Yahoo group, my hybrids with tsingtauense influence: https://garden.org/thread/view...

And there are two more - one a real honey, although I am not sure how good the inflorescence structure is...


I might have my own version of "High Contrast". First bloom was last season. I have high hopes for it, but it's way to early really to know. While its normal sized siblings on either side of it in the row bloomed in their 4th and 5th year, this one took nine years, and so far is only 2ft tall. Been keeping it a "secret" from everyone here, but you've managed to pull it out of me!




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Anthony, I happened to notice this old post: https://garden.org/thread/view...
Is that seedling still alive?

I'm really enjoying the assortment of martagon hybrids, Jim. Thankyou for sharing.

Leftwood said:

Quite a striking bloom, Rick!

JimSaskatoon said:I forgot to include this yellow seedling from similar breeding. As you can see I has very unusual doubled, tripled or more leaf whorls. I will be watching it this year to see if it continues this growth habit. Interesting trait if it does - not sure if it is good or bad or just interesting.
Jim

I agree; very exciting!