01 April 2010

More interesting new blues from plant breeders.


We all know that in flowers, blue is the rarest colour. Which means some of us go koo koo for cocapuffs over it. Quite a few of us, actually. That number would include me, of course. From the glorious of the difficult, divaesque, but oh-so-beautiful blue poppy...


To the stately cobalt splendor of blue delphinium...

And even the dainty, delicate, spring chorus of scilla drive mere mortals to frenzies of bountiful blue blossom blissdom.

Well, you know how plant breeders are. They're never content to rest on their laurels, and they've been at work developing some more blue flowers for us to enjoy. The following stealthy, shaky, grainy photos are of a few cultivars that your intrepid correspondent risked life and limb to get photos of for your viewing enjoyment.

For those who are thwarted by growing blue poppies, perhaps you'd like to try this dandy geum, 'Til I'm Blue Cooky'. I think it would work particularly well, like most geums, in full sun with well-drained soil.

We're always taught that hemerocallis come in every conceivable shade except black and true blue. Well, we can cross the latter off the list with 'Crazy Iovanni', which to the best of my understanding was created by genetical manipulation, introducing the DNA from the blue April Fish into one of the showier of yellow daylilies, 'Fools' Gold.' I wasn't able to ascertain, from my lofty perch in a truffula tree, whether the foliage of this new hemerocallis was evergreen or not.

Ah yes, the blue rose. We've all heard about how some things are as 'rare as blue roses.' Well, once again, the GMO wizards have been at it, splicing some DNA from that blue delphinium with multiple excited protons from the Large Hadron Collider, and zapping them into a pimpernelifolia rose. Meet 'Harison's Blue.'

And apparently pollen from the bluebanded bee, when stolen from a blue Eryngium planum and dipped onto a double white coneflower, yields this blue eyed beauty, 'April BlueNose.' Because I was in deep ninjacover while clambering around in trees, I couldn't hear the breeder say when any of these blue beauties would be released, but I suspect it will be probably around June 31st of next year.

Whew. It's sooooo good to be out of March, isn't it?


53 comments:

  1. Great post! Love those blues! The blue daylily is lovely, I hope it will be readily available soon...

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  2. I LOVE blue flowers, but don't like the idea of GMO tinkering.
    If I can ever get Delphinium seeds to germinate, then I'll be happy.

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  3. I am also a blue lover. Hopefully one day, they will come up with a blue rose :-) Wouldn't that be amazing? But for right now, I love the blue Delphinium most.

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  4. Heh. I see what you did there.

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  5. wow jodi,

    those are great, i love your new blue introductions very cool....but have you seen my blue jade vine?


    beautiful post!

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  6. You crack me up, Jodi. I'm up way too late and found your adorable blues post. I was actually thrilled a few years ago to read an article about why breeding a blue rose, even with gene splicing, just isn't going to work -- at least not with what we know now. I find myself horrified by the very idea of a blue rose, but then I prefer to think Nature knows what she's doing.

    Of course, with a resident theoretical physicist, you know we were celebrating the collider's first successful run (and on F.'s birthday, too, perfect timing) in this house -- but only because no GMOs were involved.

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  7. Tee hee hee, it is good to be into April, isn't it? Nice post!

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  8. Lovely blue flowers. Amazing what bees can achieve, though unintentionally!

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  9. Really enjoyed your post ... I'm still grinning! Thanks for all your ninja undercover work ... it's amazing how close you got to all these wonderous new blue plants ... your photos are amazing! Lol!

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  10. I am anything but blue reading this post. If blue were common in the garden we would not crave it so would we?

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  11. Great chuckle, Jodi but those pictures of blue roses in catalogues! I don't know if you get them but the blue is definitely touched up and lots of people must be disappointed. I love blue as well, last year I realised how a little blue goes a long way. Someone commented on how blue my garden was but there wasn't that many blue flowers, just a few blue salvias. I must get some more blue salvias as I doubt if they made it though last winter.

    Best wishes Sylvia (England)

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  12. Wow!
    Happy April Fool's Day Jodi, have a happy Easter as well.

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  13. Jodi girl you are VERY naughty !! I think I was supposed to put salt in your coffee instead of sugar for today !! Actually the raccoon men are here to check the baby box .. gotta' go !!

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  14. I really like the Blue Icelandic Poppy..you have showcased it so well in the past. What a cool collection of blue blooms. I had the prettiest pale blue delphinium and the voles loved it. Since I bought the plant in bloom I hoped there were some seeds that would produce some babies this spring...so far no luck.

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  15. Happy April 1 to you and to your garden of wonders! This was silly and fun and you made me laugh, but I have to tell you, I want, I mean I really want that blue hemerocallis, with its classy dark blue trim and pretty center. If only ....

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  16. Some of those idea would be very interesting but I think today being what it is there's a little bit of fiction here. ;)

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  17. I actually did have a blue rose...for one summer. The following year, it turned a rather homely dark purple and then lightened to a blah pink. I suspect it was planted to close to other bushes. Thanks for the chuckle. :)

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  18. I can't wait to see that blue rose. How unusual!

    Eileen

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  19. Brilliant Jodi! I love April Fool's Day...but you can't make a fool of me! I do wish that I could grow the delicious blue poppy and those delphiniums...Blue helps in the heat of summer...gail

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  20. You are such a wicked girl Jodi!

    Anyways acid yellow is the colour of April you know! Must dash I have to go decorate my Easter bonnet...

    RO xxx

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  21. I can't believe you forgot the STATE FLOWER of TEXAS - the Bluebonnet!

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  22. I started off being interested. Then I wanted the hemerocallis. Then I started getting cross about the GM and the DNA. Then I thought the last picture looked like some rather disgusting and lurid pest. Then I decided I'm an idiot.

    Hurray!

    Esther

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  23. Too funny! I'm not so big on blue flowers but boy I wish that daylily could happen. June 31st is just around the corner...right?

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  24. um...deeerrrrrhh.......oh right! it's That Day! Well played, young Jodi, well played!

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  25. Uh huh, and I take it they flower once in a blue moon? Amazing, innit?

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  26. That is the best April 1 post so far! Excellent.

    I think I've actually seen those blue roses in a few questionable catalogs.
    Marnie

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  27. Hi Jodi,
    When I got to the end of your post, I said my thoughts out loud, "This is an April fool." Great one, and you did an awesome job on those photos!

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  28. Happy April! I don't know whether I'd rush out to get any of those blue flowers if they actually existed. Well, maybe the coneflower. Great job with the photoshopping.

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  29. This makes me blue. What wonderful blue hues.

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  30. Jodi, how in the world were you able to contain yourself enough to take these photos? I don't have any blue in my garden...usually prefer purple, burgandy and bright yellow. But THESE specimens are unreal!! The blue poppy grabbed my attention right away...not far from my favorite combo of purple and yellow. Then I spotted the 'Til I'm Blue Cooky' and the 'April Blue Nose'. I'm convinced I need some blue...especially that April Blue Nose!!

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  31. What a great catalog of blue. Why is it that there are more blue spring plants than in any other season?

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  32. Hilarious Jodi! Happy April Fool's Day. You and the folks at Google have been very busy.~~Dee

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  33. Oh dear Jodi, now your really tempting me with these blue blooms. Hope this is not an April Fools posting LOL! Just to think there may be a blue rose and lily just thrills me. I have seed for the Himalayan Blue Poppies and I just hope they will grow for me. What beauties!
    Lona

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  34. lol Jodi I was thinking about doing something for 1st April but never got a chance. Oh if only there was such a thing as a blue hemerocalis..........

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  35. Jodi, some these blues almost don't seem real. Goodness. I remember when my grandmother would call a flower blue, and would think myself 'to you maybe...looks purple to me'. There's no denying these are true blue! The hemerocallis looks more orchid-like than daylily...amazing.

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  36. Great post, not sure I would ever buy that color of blue daylily though:)

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  37. I will never feel blue again after reading this, Jodi! Wow, a blue plant lover, I never have seen some of these beauties. What would we do without you to tease and temp us! Happy April 1st, you temptress! Perhaps, in our lifetime ... the hemerocallis or rose!

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  38. I totally wouldn't have guessed it if I didn't get the heads up from others here. :) Despite the fact that my boss told everyone today that our assistant had quite. I believed that too.

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  39. My goodness, what a blue collection! I am amazed all those different shade of blues. Oh, that blue poppy! I love blues, and just published a post with "blue, purple and lavender" title, and then I saw your post! I guess a busy working day made me missed this post earlier.

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  40. Happy April Fools Day to you, too! You got me going for a while there. I was ready to go online and order the daylily. Thanks for a fun post!!

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  41. A blue daylily! That would be just weird. I love blue, especially when planted with white and yellow. I also like lavender and orange together. I think there are many beautiful blue plants already, and we can live without the blue hemerocallis!

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  42. Chuckle. Jodi - you are so naughty! Everyone knows your fondness for the blue poppy so I think that must have lured so many of your regulars into a false sense of security when they read your post even though you made your photos almost nuclear fallout standard in their hues!

    I started my April 1st 2010 joke on 1/4/09 which is why when I went to the links in my most special of favourites folders, I couldn't make head or tail of what I had in mind.

    I guess I must be the April Fool then!

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  43. Jodi, I am such a great patsy for April Fool's jokes; I completely fell for it. I was feeling righteous indignation over that Frankenstein daylily! LOL -Jean

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  44. LOL!! You got me! Having worked in gene splicing for years I thought 'of course it's possible', makes perfect sense. Great post!!

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  45. Blue flowers are just the most beautiful in the world! The best I can do here in the deep south are blue pansies in the winter/spring and bachelor buttons in the late summer. Your photos are gorgeous. It's too hot here for delphiniums, although our Lowe's garden center sells them. I found out quickly that they don't like our humidity.

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  46. These blue flowers are absolutely beautiful! I have to content myself with pansies here, since the poppies and delphiniums don't tolerate the heat.

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  47. Whew! Glad that this was a hoax. The blue daylily looked downright creepy.

    Joanne

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  48. Thanks so much! I have ordered 3 of the blue daylily and 4 of the blue rose. Good thing you gave me the heads up.

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  49. LOL! Nice, Jodi... did you Photoshop all of these yourself?

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  50. Yes, even this southern gardener is glad to be out of March! Love the blues, and am always envious of those remarkable blue poppies. If I end up further north, I'll get those in celebration of a new zone! The others were interesting too - some blues that I wasn't as familiar with. Thanks!

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  51. You had me going until you got to the hemerocallis. Happy April!

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  52. Wow, that blue poppy is impressive! However, when I see a unique colored plant I'm so hesitant. I find that sometime a photo can be deceiving and its not the amazing color that was promised when I grow it. Is it really that blue? If so, I must have it!!!

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