I tried to get a good photo of how the ends of the bud builder scapes look like spirals compared to "regular" scapes. It was not easy to show the spiral effect! My best bud builder is a seedling of mine. It is nearly 4 feet tall, and I am only 5 feet tall. I could not get above it enough to look down on the end of the scape to show it from above. Since it starts blooming mid season and often blooms till mid October - or even until November -- selfish me did not want to cut the scape off to take the photo...
So I tried to show it from the side. Fred's photos above must have been bud building for a long time! I wonder if my seedling would do that if I lived in an area where it could continue to bloom for months without winter freezing it out?
The branching on my seedling is not the best - but by the time winter stops it from blooming it normally has a bud count per scape of 40-50. I'll probably name it, just because I have used it and have a friend who wants the pollen to use... but may never introduce it. I crossed it this year onto a big, 5-1/2 foot tall blooming thing that instant reblooms.
The spiral bud builder on the left. A regular scape on the right for comparison.
