Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Thine Be the Glory



Does any new flower of mine ever look exactly as I pictured it in my mind's eye? Probably not. When I made this cross of a cream and a near-white parent, I'm sure I was hoping for a pure white flower. 

But no hybridizer--even the most experienced and gifted (if only that were I!)--can control the chromosomes that combine to create the seed, and the genes that control flower color and form. For that, we must depend upon a Higher Power.

How many seedlings produce faulty flowers that don't begin to rival their famous parents? Then once in a blue moon, the stars align,  a new flower opens--and the gardener gasps. But does he dare claim the credit? For this flower, only this name would do.

The flower is a luscious apricot cream with a darker edge and deeply incised ruffling all the way around the petals and into the olive throat. Sometimes the ruffles gather into little tufts or "owl ears" (as in the top photo). Occasionally polys. 

Thine Be the Glory has 3-4 way branching and a budcount of 18. Flowers are very big and very consistentBlooms for a month, then reblooms. In 2013, rebloom started 7/31 and continued until 8/18.

This frilly confection is no tender evergreen, but a hard dormant, and a reliable performer in my Region 6 garden. Pod and pollen fertile. Sweetly fragrant. Very limited.

Great White x (Portofino x unknown)  10-G-3
Flower 6"
Height 30"
Dormant
Midseason-Mid-late
Fragrant
Reblooms

Introduced at $125 SF



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