I admit I'm a wuss. Raking leaves in 48F, damp, overcast weather and I'm
freezing. So I thought I'd pester the list for a bit hoping to get the
chill out. I guess all you folks buried in snow and really cold temps won't
be able to stop laughing long enough to view and read the post.

A few years ago when I grew some seedlings out of Ramayana the results were
some of clearest, cleanest colors I've ever seen in a bloom. The plants
were great as seedlings, then bloomed out or were near bloomouts that take a
couple of years to bring back to a clump. The seedling used as the pod
parent is one that took some time to get back after nearly blooming out. I
wondered if the colors would be passed along while correcting the bloomout
issue. Sort of. Maybe. These grew really well as seedlings and looked
like Ramayana seedlings. But they came close to doing the same thing. #1
and #5 bloomed out and are gone. #3 nearly did. #4, my favorite bloom, was
acceptable but not ideal. #2 did every thing right as far as growth and
stalk to fan ratio - had everything I like in a plant, but it was the only
one that didn't have the color. I'd sent some seeds from this cross to the
ASI seed exchange and a fellow grew six more siblings to those shown here.
His description of the blooms was that they were variations on the same
theme. Good description, I think. He also sent me a photo of the one of
the six that had good growth. And it had the clear colors and was similar
(but better) than #1. So out of eleven plants 2 1/2 had respectable growth.
I was really interested and grateful he sent the photo. I used pollen from
several of these, but probably won't be pursuing these any further.

Donald Eaves
d*@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA