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jblaschke

Amethyst x caerulea

jblaschke
17 years ago

I love spring. Late last week, my Amethyst vine (which is still fairly modest in size) opened its first blooms of the season. It's averaging maybe one ever other day right now. But lucky fate would have it that my caerulea is blooming as well. So I start hand-pollinating. I even try bud pollination on two of them. Well, the bud pollinations failed miserably, as have most of the others, but one of the simple hand pollinations has taken. The ovary is swelling and is now three quarters of an inch long.

I've checked several hybrid lists online, and this appears to be a fairly fruitful cross, one which has given rise to several new flowers over the years. Of course, the fruit may turn out to be hollow, but I'm happy.

And the fact that a fruit is forming confirms that I do indeed have an Amethyst, rather than its sterile look-alike Lavender Lady.

Comments (18)

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    And here's a picture of the li'l tyke:

    And I'm not 100 percent sure yet, but it does appear that another Amethyst ovary is starting to swell also. :-)

  • karyn1
    17 years ago

    Hopefully you'll get some viable seeds.
    Karyn

  • chena
    17 years ago

    WOW!!!!!
    Good Job!! That is just beautiful...I'm so glad you posted a pic..
    Chena

  • sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
    17 years ago

    Nice job with Amethyst! Hope you get some seeds in there. Even if you got one or two it would be worth planting. Let us know if you get any. I have LL and have never had any fruit so I guess mine must be a correct identity. My LL is favored by hummingbirds -they go to it first everyday to check for flowers before scouting the other plants and still no fruit. So LL is surely sterile.
    ~SJN

  • karyn1
    17 years ago

    I also have a LL. It's my most prolific bloomer and fastest grower. Too bad it's not one of my favorites. I wish they all grew like that one. I know that the LL doesn't set fruit but can it's pollen be used to pollinate a different variety?
    Karyn

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Karyn, I believe the word on Lavender Lady is that it is completely sterile. So no, it can't even pollinate another. Amethyst doesn't produce viable pollen either, IIRC, and I know for a fact that Incense produces a whole lot of pollen, but all of it is sterile. Many more hybrids will set fruit than produce viable pollen. I don't know why that is, but I find it curious.

  • karyn1
    17 years ago

    Interesting. That narrows what might have pollinated my plants that did produce viable seed. I might have to start collecting and storing pollen from some plants that do produce fertile pollen. I had no idea that Incense pollen was sterile too.
    Karyn

  • ninecrow
    17 years ago

    How's the Fruit doing jblaschke?

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    This fruit--and several others--are continuing to slowly grow. They're green and taper at each end. The shape doesn't resemble maypop or edulis fruit. I'll try and get a pic up today or tomorrow.

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Here's what the Amethyst fruit looks like two weeks later. Not huge, but steady growing. This pic is slightly smaller than life size--I'd say it's 2" long at this point. It's certainly not developing as fast as my incarnatas' fruit.

    And as an added bonus, here's a fruit on my Lady Margaret, about a week and a half old. It's growing even more slowly than the Amethyst. Like the Amethyst, my caerulea is the pollenator.

  • karyn1
    17 years ago

    They look good. I've never been able to get a fruit on my Lady Margaret. I've tried to pollinate with just about every variety that I have but no luck. At least it's a good bloomer.
    Karyn

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    This is the first fruit to last this long on the LM. Last fall, pollen from my Incarnata triggered a false pregnancy which aborted after a week. LM has documented crosses with caerulea and vitifolia. I tried three pollinations with vitifolia last week, but as of now one is a definite "No," and the other two are iffy at best.

  • angie83
    17 years ago

    Here is mine kinda looks like a watermelon hehehe Its a vitflora X Caerulea.

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Very nice, Angie. Vitifolia probably has the coolest of all passion fruit, aesthetically speaking.

    Alas, my Lady Margaret fruit aborted yesterday. I'd gotten a little worried since it hadn't appreciably grown for several days. I cut the fruit open (maybe the size of two peas) and it appeared there were many pinhead sized immature fruit inside. Ah well. I pollenated it a few days ago with my Constance Eliott, and already that fruit is larger than this one I just lost...

  • ninecrow
    17 years ago

    But the Amethyst is doing OK?
    Sorry to hear about your LM Dropping.... *Sigh*
    Maybe you'll get better results with Constance Eliott...

  • angie83
    17 years ago

    I have tried alot with my LM too with no luck but I hope this year to get a seed .If your amethyst X Caerulea you will get a Bessy and they pretty.

    Here is a link that might be useful: bessy

  • jblaschke
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Currently there are four happily growing fruit on the Amethyst, so I don't think premature drop is going to be a problem. And "Bessy" isn't the only hybrid to come from the caerulea x Amethyst cross. John Vanderplank has released several, variations on the "Star of..." name.

    LM is apparently very reluctant to set and hang onto its fruit, but it has been done. I've seen pics of a caerulea cross, and there are LM x vitifolia hybrids out there as well. Maybe I'll get lucky. :-)

  • angie83
    17 years ago

    I see them now not sure how it works is it just a random luck what ya get Im new to this I see at less 4 more you can get so ya wont know what ya get till it blooms.But they all pretty so you can go wrong.

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