July Days

I have a few thousands of these in bloom and each day I have to record what has bloomed and then proceed to select several dozen possible crosses. To select a cross one looks for a good paternal pollen contributor and then wanders about thinking of the maternal recipient. One considers the possible offspring but like humans there is always a great deal of luck.

Thus across a wide field one wanders thinking of great parents for great offspring knowing that at best it would be two years hence and most likely four years before one sees anything.

Hybridizing requires patience and commitment. It is real genes in action, not that lab stuff with little mice but nature at its wildest.

Then there is always the battle with nature. The triploid H fulvas are like cancerous tumors, targeting weaker hybrids, surrounding them, killing off their nutrients and taking over. One must be vigilant, seeing them and then performing surgery. First the removal from the ground, then identification of the malignant cells, carefully separating them from the hybrid and destroying them, and then setting them aside for growth till the fall. In many ways it is akin to being a cancer surgeon, knowing what to cut and what to keep and then bringing the patient back.

Nature is the same everywhere, just in different forms.