Over the weekend we were emptying the greenhouse of 2008 seedlings and I came across this one. Unfortunately the blooms seem to have 20 to 25 petals, so I plucked them off in order to photograph the petal coloring. This was a smaller seedling among several other hulthemias from this family and I am not sure whether I saw it bloom earlier in the season or not.
I sure like the color even if it has too many petals. Unlike most of the other repeat blooming hulthemias, this one seems to have a solid blotch going all the way to the petal apex.
Hopefully it will survive and be useful for breeding with next year…
I have always loved the deep pink/mauve colors. This one is superb. The blotch is something. The ones that you showed us in your presentation in Denver were not, to me, as colorful as this. Keep up the good work and keep posting photos.
It would be interesting to know which anthocyanin is responsible for the blotch, and whether it is different from the main pigment of the petal. A little paper chromatography would answer the second question. I can send you some protocols if you wanted to find out.
John, I think that you are right. This seedling probably has the best coloring of all the hulthemias that I have grown. The purple blotch coloring is very dark and wasn’t fully captured in the photo.
Don, I have wondered about what it is too that produces the color variation of the blotch. Perhaps the hulthemias will be responsible for bringing in a novel pigment??? Yes, I would be interested in learning techniques in separating pigments. I recall doing something like that in college Chemistry.
This one has several “doses” of ‘Midnight Blue’ coming from both parents.
An added bonus to most of the hulthemias is a good deal of fragrance.