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Here it goes! Colour me surprised that pink overwhelms. (Heavy sarcasm) I think I got a whiff of light sweetness, but the bud is barely opened. This one is the healthiest of the bunch, the others are quite liberally spotted.
My Abraham Darby is just flushing out again, so I may strip a few buds and pick pollen-partners myself. I do wish I’d saved some pollen from Stephens Big Purple. Maybe I’ll use Outta the Blue pollen; I like the shape of it (as a plant) better. Maybe J P Connell, or Winnipeg Parks…
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Well it’s quite pretty, but pink; also not much scent. Sufficiently healthy to grow on for a bit.
Second one is a paler, not-so-double version of the first, not nearly as vigorous & healthy, so YOINK out it goes.
Third has some warm yellow-tones at the petal base, so I won’t discard it yet.
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Lord it’s pink. But pretty enough I suppose. If it doesn’t develop a good scent, it will be discarded most likely.
And a YELLOW BUD?! That’s exciting.
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HUZZAH!! Some yellow faded, but the centre shows gorgeous apricot tones, AND SCENT: sweet and light. A keeper.
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Quite nice! My local rose garden has a large bed of Abraham Darby that I’m hoping to harvest OP hips from in a month or two.
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Shockingly (to me), I’ve had only ONE GERMINATION this spring from a row of OP Abraham Darby seeds. Thus far, anyway…
AD was to be particularly “put upon” this season, for deliberate crosses. I will do so, but also use it’s pollen on some of my better germinators.
Just ONE of the seedlings has any real vigour.
Also, I have five seedlings, but I don’t have pictures of five flowers from last year worth keeping. What’s up with that?
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That one-gallon seedling is opening! Pretty sure it’s the third seedling pictured above in July ‘24- “Third has some warm yellow-tones at the petal base, so I won’t discard it yet.”
And BOY am I glad I didn’t!
Also pretty sure it’s pollen-donor was ‘Trier’ again, which would make this a likely triploid. So far it seems lax and trailing in habit. Maybe a groundcover? Or (with some more vigour) a climber?
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That evening, and the last picture is from this morning, backlit by the sun. Pretty and peachy.
Abraham Darby x Trier (very likely).
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This one is more of the upright-shrub style, seemingly without multiflora involvement, at least close by in its ancestry. Good scent, big flowers, shockingly fewer petals than I anticipated. We shall see if this seedling (which was so weak all last year) shows any more vigour in this season.
Maybe? I dunno.
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First flower of its Second Year.
I was shocked with the white bud this plant finally showed. Not yellow, but a pearly-white, big and hard as a marble. There aren’t any apricot tones that I can make out in the centre, but there is some yellow. And it’s sweetly tea-scented! (EDIT: fragrance aged to a very strong & sweet lychee. Delicious.)
But a weak plant beneath, so very weak you can’t even see evidence OF ANY PLANT, but I assure you the flower is attached to stems, leaves and roots.
My hand is just blocking the whole thing.
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Currently blooming SO BRIGHT, it’s hard to believe it is the same pastel flower I am used to. OP ‘Abe Darby’, likely x ‘Trier’.
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Got two nice fat OP hips off Abe Darby, and waiting for colouration of hips on two more crosses on him.
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The ONLY seedling from Abraham Darby that I’ve kept longer than a year, now beginning to bloom for its THIRD season!!
It’s a small shrub so far, barely 30cm/1ft wide and less than that tall. Several basal shoots are bursting forth currently, so those dimensions may change. Curious that it has remained so small, especially considering it’s likely pollen-parent is Trier! Likely a triploid plant, it hasn’t set a hip for me yet.
I’m a little amazed *and frustrated* that I had a handful of really nice plants from my first year really putting in effort growing OP seeds. The bar was set quite high, and successive years have had to try harder. lol
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