Re: Re: Eleanor Roosevelt [was: ORIGIN: Kochii ]

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'Eleanor Roosevelt' has bluish beards, they tend toward white, but the blue tint is always there, sometimes strongly, sometimes not.  As I recall the blue fades as the flower ages, but I may have that backwards.  As I understand, 'Kochii' is slightly lighter in color (but I haven't flowered one yet), and the beards are white with yellow toward the base. 'Crimson King' is also similar to 'Kochii', and there are some other names such as 'Nepalensis' and 'Atropurpurea' that are of this same type too.  'Eleanor Roosevelt' reblooms like crazy, and in mild climates will often try to flower all winter.  'Crimson King' rarely reblooms, though in just the right conditions (don't ask what they are, I've only seen it happen twice so far) it will send up a stalk or two in the autumn.

 

The recorded chromosome number for Eleanor Roosevelt is 42, but I would like to see that double checked.  It is very similar to another cultivar, I think it is 'Black Magic' (can somebody verify this is the one that is confused with Eleanor?).  They are probably all "wild collected" except 'Eleanor Roosevelt, which is a Sass hybrid recorded as 'Amas' x (I. pumila x ??), which likely translates to 'Amas' x I. lutescens, since most of the "pumilas" of the day were really I. lutescens; however, 'Amas' x (I. pumila x I. lutescens) would yield the 42 chromosome number, and would still supply roughly the same genetic material.  It might also help explain the profuse reblooming?  It and some of Sass' other IB seedlings are so close to I. x germanica in morphology, that I can't help wondering if he didn't stumble onto the same basic parentage as the wild ones.  The difference is that he came up with colors other than white to purple (as well as those colors).

 

These are all basically of the "germanica" type.

 

Dave