More hippeastrum pods ripened and RIP plants that didn't survive the winter

[lblanchard]

I've added two pods to the "online seed catalog" post, showing parentage. I'm now up to twelve ripe pods with what appear to be viable seeds, and three more to go. I can afford to be lavish in gifting seeds to my friends, with the exception of that first pod, which I'll share but in small quantities as it's the only one with a cross from the Class of 2009 AND it was "born" the same day as my great grandson.

I don't think I have mentioned (yet) the two plants that did not survive the winter outside this year. The first (three plants, actually) was a lovely blue-green hosta given to me by the owner of a Connecticut bed and breakfast in 2001. It had grown and I divided it into three plants, which I put in with a potted curly willow. I think that a late snow caused too much water in the pot after it had sprouted and I found rotted shoots.

The second gives me decidedly mixed feelings: the Aunties' Rose. I think I may have had the last piece of it to remain in the family, although I need to check with the niblings. It hasn't come back. The loss of a family heirloom is vexing. On the other hand, as roses go it was fugly.

Comments

[pameladean]

I rather like the Aunties' Rose if I don't think of it as, you know, a rose. I hope a nibling has some.

P.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Fugly? That's actually a beautiful simple petaled rose, an old-fashioned variety close to the root of all roses: the rugosa and wild roses. I have a similar one and it blooms once and then not again until the following year. It has the finest rose hips I've ever seen in the Fall.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The color was a lot more garish in real life, and the plant's growth habit was extremely untidy.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

I also hope that a nibling has some of the Aunties' Rose. It would be sad to lose an heirloom plant like that.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

YaY! My oldest niece parked her iteration of the Aunties' Rose with her in-laws. That would be the one I dug up from the community garden when it went pffft in 2004, relocated to my brother's place, and asked my niece to take along to her family's after my brother died. She rehomed it at her grandparents'. When they moved to a smaller place, she rehomed it again, this time to her inlaws. Since they're younger than we are, we figure it's safe for some time.