William Seidl
Message 1 of 3 , Mar 17, 2009
In paging thru the new Checklist 97 – 07, I came across the entry, p8, Christina, reg. 1999 by Hermann Krupke of Ljung, Sweden, from the cross Otto Froebel seedling x Coral Charm. (I could not find Otto Froebel in Part IV. Alphabetically, it should appear on p154.)
Mr. Krupke says ” Pollen fertile; so far no seeds”. I would consider its pollen valuable on Lemon Chiffon to obtain possibly coral/orange double hybrids.
The most interesting information is that the pollen came from Coral Charm. I have never known CC to be fertile in any direction, it being a triploid. Occasionally I hear reports of its fertility but never see any evidence of that, except for Christina. Does anybody out there have evidence of CC fertility? The closest thing to fertility in my garden of any of the triploid coral hybrids is Pink Hawaiian Coral, which has produced ruptured seeds that did not germinate.
I have a photo of a smiling Mr. Krupka standing alongside Christina, the peony. The picture came off the Internet atwww.pspaeon.dk/images/Krupke.htm in May, 2007 but I now have trouble getting there.
Bill Seidl
It’s interesting that Mr Krupke said that the prominent carpals on ‘Cristina’ would not make seeds for him, while at the same time, it’s pollen is good. This may (or may not ! ) be the case with other "impossible" crosses between triploids and tetraploids – their pollen may be perfectly fine when used on other tets, but for some reason their otherwise-good looking carpals are unproductive.
This is certainly the case with ‘Sparkling Windflower‘ (Early Windflower x unknown tet ) – Good pollen but never a seed, despite it’s large and happy-looking carpals.
Christina really is a very good peony, with a nice stand. Excellent vigour, and a very good colour. Think it could be a great cut.