The Latest Anthurium News

You have probably not been wondering what's new with the Anthurium seedlings, but I'm going to tell you anyway, because I just got through sorting a new round of photos, and there have been some new blooms and so forth.

One thing that has happened is that we've said goodbye to #026 "Peaches Christ," who is now living in Texas. I'm still not selling the seedlings exactly,¹ but that was a special case. The name "Peaches Christ" has now been put back into the list,² and the next time its turn comes around, the seedling will be called "Peaches Christ II" or something like that.

Anyway. There's a first bloom for #002 "Alexis Mateo:"

Unfortunately, the spathe was all janked up when it opened; I'm hoping that's just because it's the first bloom.
I have a pretty solid-seeming theory for her ancestry now: I knew the seed parent was 'Gemini,' and I now think the pollen parent is my NOID red. My evidence:

Left column is #002 "Alexis Mateo;" right column is the NOID red. Both have brown new leaves with green veining, and dark red buds which open to plain red spathes and green spadices. Plus I'm pretty sure I remember using the NOID red as a pollen parent early in this whole process.
Which means that there's a pretty good chance that the several other seedlings begun at the same time from the same seed parent, many of which also produce dark brown new leaves with green veining, are probably also 'Gemini' x NOID red. There were originally 29 seedlings in that group, about 2/3 of whom are no longer with us (most of whom departed due to drought or the great scale purge of 2012). They don't necessarily all have the same pollen parent just because the seeds all got sown at the same time, but at least two seedlings from that batch are producing brown new leaves (#007 "Coco Peru"³ and #017 "Lady Chablis"), so it seems fairly plausible that those, at least, have the same parents, and will probably bloom red or dark red when and if they ever get around to blooming.

A few other seedlings have produced first blooms, though they're not all interesting. #034 "Alaska Thunderfuck"⁴ is a disappointingly normal red/yellow:

#041 "Anna Graham" is weirder (sort of a light pink/peach with matching spadix), but also tiny (the spathe is only an inch / 2.5 cm tall, which is about 40% of normal size) and not very interesting for breeding purposes:

After a ridiculously long wait, and at least one aborted bud, we've finally gotten a bloom from #120 "Eliza Boutiseckis." I don't have a lot of orange-orange blooms, so this is maybe interesting even if it's not amazing. I'll be excited if it stays orange; its probable full sibling, #118 "Elijah Sturdabowtit," starts out very orange but then gets lighter and pinker very quickly. You can see it's already got some slight tendencies toward pink:

The one I'm most excited about lately is #144 "Graham Reaper:"

It's not that Graham is that amazing in the photos, but the red/pink-lavender combination was really pretty in person, especially right after it opened.

#179 "Katie Boundary" (explanation for the name) has a name that pleases me, but the actual bloom is just another red/yellow:

#213 "Nadya Falt" is very similar to #144 "Graham Reaper," though a bit less impressive:

#214 "Anita Knapp" had a weird lavender tinge to it when it first opened, but it's more of a plain light pink now. Its spadix is disproportionately tiny, but the whole flower is small, so I'm not sure that means anything. We'll have to wait for the next bloom.

This brings the total number of seedlings who have bloomed up to 48. (Pictures of all of them so far are in footnote ⁵, should you be interested in comparing.) Most don't pass the would-I-buy-this-if-it-were-in-a-store test, but there are several I'd at least stop and think about.

There are also 21 seedlings with buds right now, mostly from plants that have bloomed already. The next time I do one of these posts, I may have first-time blooms to show you from #040 "Ivy Winters," #095 "Clarice Fullhartz" (name explanation), #203 "Anna Mae Hemensouz," and #218 "Noah Fence." I'm particularly excited about Anna Mae, whose bud so far is a very dark red. The others all look like they're going to be normal pinks and reds.

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¹ It's possible, though everything else being equal it's really a lot simpler to just take them to the consignment store in Iowa City than it is to arrange for payment, box them up and mail them to people. The only reason I haven't taken any to the consignment store yet is because the thrips are still a problem. (Any time I show you a spathe with irregular brown spots on it, that's thrips damage. It's only cosmetic, not something that's going to kill the plants, but it's irritating as hell.) I'm trying to figure out what to do about that first. (Peaches' recipient was aware of the thrips and agreed to take her anyway.)
² I currently have a list of ~300 potential seedling names, in addition to the 430 names which have already been assigned to seedlings. And then there are another 47 names that I'm trying to decide whether to use or not. Pondering drag names is a much bigger part of my life than you probably realize. It's certainly a much bigger part of my life than I would ever have expected.
³ I really hope that this seedling turns out to be worth hanging onto, because I kind of love Coco. Exhibit A (NSFW):

"Oh, sweetheart, your mother. Your poor mother."
⁴ Also delightful, though more of an acquired taste than Coco. This isn't safe for work either:

⁵ The full list (best image to date, number, name, spathe color / spadix color, seed parent):

002 "Alexis Mateo" -- red / green, 'Gemini'

005 "Chad Michaels" -- dark red / green, 'Gemini'

026 "Peaches Christ" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

031 "Sylvester" -- orange / white, 'Orange Hot'

034 "Alaska Thunderfuck" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

035 "Alyssa Edwards" -- purple-red / yellow, 'Gemini'

041 "Anna Graham" -- pink / pink, 'Orange Hot'

046 "Aurora Boreanaz" -- pink / purple, NOID purple

059 "Bijoux Tuit" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

063 "Audrey Quest" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

066 "Barbara Seville" -- pink / pink, 'Gemini'

076 "Bob Humbug" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

083 "Carmen Adairya" -- pink / pink, 'Gemini'

085 "Carson Trucks" -- purple-pink / yellow, 'Gemini'

097 "Colin Ambulance" -- pink-orange / orange, NOID purple

108 "Deena Sequins" -- red / purple, NOID purple

110 "Delta Badhand" -- red / red, NOID purple

116 "Eileen Dover" -- red / red, 'Orange Hot'

118 "Elijah Sturdabowtit" -- pink-orange / pink-orange, 'Orange Hot'

120 "Eliza Boutiseckis" -- orange / orange, 'Orange Hot'

125 "Anya Wei" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

126 "Erin Dirtylondry" -- pink / pink, 'Gemini'

144 "Graham Reaper" -- red / pink, 'Gemini'

149 "Heather Boah" -- dark red / yellow, 'Gemini'

179 "Katie Boundary" -- red / yellow, 'Gemini'

200 "Mario Speedwagon" -- purple / purple, NOID purple

202 "Mason Pepperspray" -- pink / pink, NOID purple

213 "Nadya Falt" -- red / pink, 'Gemini'

214 "Anita Knapp" -- pink / yellow, 'Gemini'

216 "Gillian Jamm" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

223 "Patty Cake" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

231 "Rhea Listick" -- red-purple / yellow, 'White Gemini'

232 "Rhoda Badcek" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

234 "Ross Koz" -- purple-pink / yellow, 'White Gemini'

235 "Rowan DeBoate" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

238 "Rudy Day" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

239 "Russ Teanale" -- pink / yellow, 'White Gemini'

243 "Sal Monella" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

244 "Sara Problem" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

245 "Sawyer Ad" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

247 "Selma Carr" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

271 "Wanda Reulthemal" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

273 "Wes Coast" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

275 "Yvette Horizon" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'

276 "Zach Religious" -- pink / orange?, 'White Gemini' (don't have great pictures of Zach's spadix)

280 "Jujubee" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

282 "Dave Trading" -- red / yellow, 'White Gemini'

283 "Anne Pursand" -- pink / pink, 'White Gemini'