Hi Donna,
Both look quite nice from the photos. Do you think it is possible that they will turn out to be the sake? In Hippies with a faint star like this (I am thinking of Amigo), the star can be quite variable. If they are different, perhaps you are the only person to have the one with the correct name.
Bill

Did you ever take pictures of the conjoined flowers? I don't remember if I saw them...

Bill,

When I originally received my mislabeled bulb ( which I named Tinkerbell) I eventually emailed Saad Assaf to see what they could tell me about it and had several very friendly conversations with them about this bulb which I thought was gorgeous. They said it was a mistake that it got out as they were not going to release it but that they were going to release a sister seedling. They sent me a picture of that seedling and it was the current Tinkerbell. (I believe) They also said they loved my choice of names for my first bulb and would I mind if they used that name for the sister seedling they were going to release. Of course I had to say yes after all these were their bulbs.

Here is the picture they sent me of the "sister seedling"...
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At least I am assuming they aren't the same but have many similarities (unless there is a third one)!

I so wanted to try to pollinate the new one with my old and I may try anyway but not being able to remove the pollen isn't good and the stigma is actually only 1/4'' away, I'd never be sure it wasn't just a self. I only have the one scape with 6 flowers on this new bulb and I have two very small flowers yet to open so I may tear them apart literally to get at that pollen to remove it

Joe,

Here are my conjoined flowers from this summer. As you can see everything about the flower is still beautiful and I didn't even mind the conjoined flowers! My bulb grew a few leaves and now they have died. This bulb is not vigorous and I'd hate to loose it! If it would only form a bulblet then maybe I could try to chip it or something but it's just sitting dormant for now.

In this photo you can see the front and and back flowers are both conjoined...

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Twice I have tried to self many flowers on the original Tinkerbell with no luck what so ever.

Donna

This post was edited by dondeldux on Sun, Jan 5, 14 at 9:21

Hmm, makes one wonder why they chose this particular sister...

I think I would be tickled pink if a bulb kept putting out conjoined flowers. It's such a weird quirk and makes them look pretty neat.

Well, they said the one that I got by mistake didn't do well in subsequent years. I have a lot of bulbs that don't do well in subsequent years! Perhaps its penchant for forming conjoined flowers wasn't a fluke and it does this regularly?

I did manage to get the pollen off the last two flowers so I will give it a try with this summer's pollen from the original Tinkerbell on a non- rooted bulb. The pollen hasn't been frozen but has been refrigerated all this time. I am currently using even older Exotic Star pollen and I think it has taken on a Lima.

Also, at the time I was discussing this bulb with them I happened to notice the middle bulb in their home web page and to me it looks just like my Tinkerbell. When I asked them about this particular flower they said they didn't remember which one it was but it was an older variety. What do you think?

Donna