So Darby has bloomed again. After she failed to get nearly everything right the first time -- tiny spathe, short peduncle, short-lived bloom, thrips scars everywhere, crappy foliage, boring color -- I was waiting to see whether the next one would be any better. Sometimes they do need a practice bloom before they really get going, and when it comes to the seedlings, I'm all about the second chances.
But you know what? The second bloom wasn't any better.
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It might actually be a little larger than the first, but not such that you'd notice. The thrips damage is considerably worse. It's lived twice as long as the first bloom and is still going,1 though longevity shouldn't necessarily count in its favor if this is how it's going to look. In person, the color is unchanged; I recognize it looks different in the photos, but it's not. The newest leaf has as much thrips damage as the older ones did. The peduncle is not only basically the same length, it's bent as well, so that the new spathe faces directly downward.2
So 0415 "Darby Dragons" gets to be the first Anthurium seedling that sucks so much that I throw it out even though it's bloomed. Twice. And exceptionally early. Which is a little depressing, but I suppose it frees up space for a seedling that doesn't suck.
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1 (As of 25 May, when I'm writing this.)
2 (Which may explain why it's showing up a different color in the new photo.)
2 (Which may explain why it's showing up a different color in the new photo.)
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5 comments:
Yeah, looks like good compost material to me. (Besides, it's not as though you don't already have massive supply of anths. Shuffle a couple plants around and you won't even notice the empty space it used to occupy.)
I like your work with Anthurium seedlings. It makes me wonder, are you a member of the Int. Aroid Society? (I read somewhere you mentionned it, so I believe you know of its existence.) And if not, why?
Did you register or do you intend to register any of your seedlings as cultivar with the society? and if not, why?
I am just curious.
Keep up the good work
Roxane B.
Roxane Sinensis:
I'm not a member, no. Why not? Um. I don't know. I guess I've never had a problem that I felt joining the IAS could solve? I don't even know what's involved in becoming a member, as far as that goes.
I haven't registered anything with anybody. If I come up with something I'm especially happy with (closest so far is probably 0231 "Rhea Listick"), yes, I would certainly think about registering and/or patenting, though I can't imagine that that would happen anytime very soon.
Would it be worth trying to use it and selectively breed for its early/prolific blooming and use other plant parents to make the thing more.....desireable. kind of like how leghorn chickens that are pretty much good for nothing but laying. But you mix them with a different breed with more desireable attributes, you get a good all around bird and they are still laying machines.
Anonymous:
Well, it's a moot point now, since it was already dead by the time this post was published, but even if I still had it -- it had one good quality (early blooming). There are other seedlings that bloom early, without all Darby's additional negatives, so it'd be hard to defend keeping her.
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