The cross here is Desert Joy X (Lights of Arabia x Desert Embroidery #1).
Two views of the same bloom. This seedling germinated a year later than its
pod siblings. I was pleased with the results of the cross. All the blooms
had pleasant form, good substance on strong stalks and have so far proved to
be sturdy growers. This was the most 'yellow' of the bunch. Flanagan
introduced Desert Joy as an OGB- indicating an unbalanced set of
chromosomes. So it's what I'd call a 'down the line derivative', but not a
1st generation 'derivative'. I can't tell exactly what is there since there
are a couple of unknowns involved, but New Moon is back in the lineage.
That lineage is why I wanted to try and use it. The number of viable seeds
from the pod sets it apart from a typical planting using one parent with an
unbalanced chromosome set. There you are lucky to get one plant and really,
really lucky to get more than that from a pod. As often as not you get
nothing at all for the effort. I think all the fertility issues haven't
cleared out, but I believe there is more involved than just the chromosome
pairs. So this may or may not have an unbalanced set chromosomes. It just
may have a balanced set and picked up some of the other barriers to
fertility that seem to be involved. More generations down the line and I'd
expect those barriers to disappear. That's been my theory and what happened
using Desert Joy corresponds to the theory. I'll note here that Desert
Embroidery would in fact be a 1st gen 'derivative' and is also registered as
an OGB-, or quarterbred. So the seedling shown only has Lights of Arabia as
a balanced chromosome set ancestor. The siblings of this set seeds pretty
well and germination has been good. I'd guess under good conditions this
one would as well, making it an OGB type, or halfbred.

TMI? For most, I expect. But for the one or less that one with half
interest I thought I'd stick the info on.

Now to go play in the mud and drizzle and see if the river managed to run a
little stream down the bed. It was working on doing that yesterday and I
got to watch the water creep toward where I usually walk across. First time
I've ever seen it running in one part and not the other, but it was rising
very slow.

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