This is definitely Baby Doll X Estella. I was somewhat puzzled why neither of them gave more than the two blooms, but will reserve judgment until they are more mature. Just happy to see a hippie seedling blooming since I had lost nearly everything to Mosaic Virus a couple years ago.

I got ride of all the viruses infected bulbs but one and had been diligent to keep it far away from the healthy bulbs only to find the virus popping up everywhere again. So now I just don't worry about it. I will share seeds, even pollen and I will ship seedlings south to be grown in ground (as long as they are symptom free), but I add very few and my collection is no where near the size it was at one time. I do have quite a few seedling yet to maiden and I have 3 crosses planted from earlier in the season, one being PINK DIAMOND X papilio (from stored pollen at that!). There are 2 crosses (reciprocal) of BABY DOLL X BELLADONNA and then there are pods hangs on EXOTIC STAR by both of the miniatures. Where they will all go to grow up is any one's guess, perhaps most will go south.

I do have a few Cybister type crosses I hope will bloom next season, especially if I am able to get them pumped up this summer. I refuse to let this virus bum me out and as long as they continue to grow and bloom well I will grow them.

they are very pretty I like them like your attitude toward the virus I have same attitude I am doing an experiment to see if I can kill the virus but its to early to tell if it has worked but the virused bulb thaught that it was dying so has sent up six pups the virused bulb was very bady virused and is only 1 inch across regards danny

the viresed bulb only sent up the pups after I treated it with poison I look at it a chemotherapy for a bulb lol

Your Baby Doll x Estrella is quite beautiful! The outcome surprises me as there is no resemblance to Estrella!! But, now that I look more closely do I see a tinge of orange on the edges of the petals and the backs of the flowers??

I have found that out of the 5 of my maiden bloom seedlings that 3 of them gave me 3 flowers and the others just 2 flowers. I think/hope they will improve next year.

I think a lot of it is that we must grow in pots and not in the ground where I feel they do so much better.

I tried Pink Diamond x papilio this year on 2 flowers and they failed, in fact, all attempts, Lima as ,failed with Pink Diamond...I look forward to seeing yours when they bloom, I think they should make for an extremely showy flower.

Donna

Danny,

I'm curious how YOU determine whether or not your bulbs are virused. Any information about what you are doing and what exactly you are using to cure them would be interesting to ALL of us I'm sure!!

I have several virused bulbs that I keep seperated from the others and they are doing fine, the flowers are the same and the bulbs don't seem to shrink too much, as I have healthy bulbs that shrink too.

I have a couple of whiskey barrels that are far away from the rest of any hippies which I use exclusively for my virused bulbs, and I have labeled the pots so they go back in the same pots each year after a bleach bath (which I do to all of my used pots) They grow just like the rest of my bulbs and for the most part if they are good bloomers they continue to do so.

Donna

Thanks for the in-put! No orange on either seedling and that is odd since orange is a dominate color in hippies. The bigger puzzle is that Baby Doll i a white miniature and the bloom sizes were not modified by much. Of course all has me wonder if the tags got mixed up, except all the others are Cybister type and those that aren't are not big enough to bloom.

I am very interested in hearing more about you're Chemo for Hippie bulbs, I have a few I can probably sacrifice to see if it really work.

I want to plant all of my blooming sized bulbs in the ground this summer to help with getting the growth rate pumped up. Makes it a lot easier to keep them evenly fertilized and watered. Getting them in the ground along with all the Daylilies I need to get planted is going to be the only serious issue!

Before I forget, thanks for the tip on LIMA, I'll have to hope I can cross it both ways when it ever blooms.

My Santiago - a miss labeled bulb did fabulously this March when it sent up 3 stems! This view only shows the first 2 stems that bloomed, the third was a about 7 - 10 days later and not a single pollination made!

Your Santiago is gorgeous!! Mine is about to open but only 1 scape and the bud is so narrow I doubt there will be many flowers...

"Not a single pollination made" was that because you didn't attempt any or they didn't take??

And, by the way, on your Baby Doll hybrid you mention in the text that is x Estella but your picture was labeled x Estrella! I was going by your label on the picture when I mentioned the orange component was missing..is it Estella or Estrella? :-)

Donna

Very good questions, Donna! As for the seedling, my original info on the pollen spelled it ESTRELLA, yet when I searched there was only an ESTELLA, so who knows!

As for the Mosaic Virus, I had submitted images to Lpro and that was the consensus we had come to. The foliage becomes mottled in that the cells become pale with darker ridges. I will have to search for the images I have and post them later. Some of the original bulbs that I ended up shipping to a fellow trying to find a cure were quite large and even had healthy pups. I was supposed to get virus-free bulbs in return and I did get a few, but nothing near what I felt would have been fair and I never got a couple of bulbs I really wanted. I ought to write to him again and ask about the seedlings he got in the mix and they were NBS too and one was Chico X Ruby Meyer, my very first Cybister cross - I love to have a couple of them back, even if they are virused.

Hello, i am new here in posting but have been reading months ago. Are there any virus tests they do in the commercial industry to test if samples are virus free? In case of other plants, or i can say in most plants, a plant can be a carrier but not showing symptoms yet. ELISA tests for example in bananas, will show the free plants which they use for tissue culture and multiplication. There are no pesticides yet for viruses. Once it is a carrier, it will just be there and multiply until it shows physically in visual symptoms.

It is also easily contagious by contact, as in water, utensils, hands, insects like aphids. So if already in a garden, it is easily transmitted to other plants.

I will be so depressed if your wonderful plants will be carriers to. I guess this is the danger of us buying them online. And if we purchased it for a high price, it is difficult to eradicate. thanks.

Nindy,

As far as I know there are no tests done by commercial growers and there is no way to tell by just the look of the bulb. The only way to know is once the bulb has produced foliage. When grown in strong light there will be a definite "mosaic" pattern covering the leaves. I do not currently have access to an image to show you what this looks like, perhaps another poster will and is able to post it. Perhaps in a New Topic.