Re: HYB: REF: Blyth, umbrata, WINE AND ROSES

I think both MASTERY and DECADENCE are excellent examples of the Blyth
varieties that contain one or the other or both the factors of Umbrata and
I(s) dominant amoena.  MASTERY certainly has both, as the fall border has
pigment the standards lack.  I'm not sure about DECADENCE.  I need to go back
and look at either Keppel's catalog cover or Robin Shadlow's marvelous photo
of a DECADENCE stalk in bloom in Keith's garden.

I look forward to their blooming here.  The plant I have of MASTERY is very
strong with big, healthy rhizomes.  The ground where it is planted was quite a
bit more fertile than most of my new ground.

I need about a decade of heavy soil amendments to bring the general tilth and
fertility into good garden soil quality.  As it is mostly I have gummy red
clay.  The suggestion I saw about such soils was to dump several inches of top
soil and amendments right on top and plant in the result.  Let the clay be the
subsoil--that's what it is really good for.

In the Blyth pedigrees I dug into, I recall running into LISA ANN and perhaps
more than one or two of the others you mention.

I wonder where the Umbrata comes from in WINE AND ROSES.  None of the primary
roots of the Hall line have it--MOROCCO ROSE, PRAIRIE SUNSET, DOLLY MADISON
and so on.  There must be some others mixed in, as "from similar seedlings" is
a bit ambiguous (tongue in cheek).

WINE AND ROSES has been widely used.  If my memory serves me rightly, some
Ghio pedigrees include it, and I think some Keppel as well.

Neil Mogensen  z 7 western NC mountains.

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