Hi Nick, some nice looking seedlings there. Can I assume that the seed parent was orlandiana?

Can't help with the parentage part, but if you feel bad about composting all of them...
-andy

How about Canistrum seidelianum?

Do you have a list of possibilities, Nick? Are we choosing between orlandiana x fosteriana and orlandiana x Q. edmundoi, or is it just a free-for-all?

I don't have Q. edmundoi, so I'd have to see a picture of yours before I'd want to guess. None of the pics I've seen showed any markings on the leaf, and if yours doesn't either, that would tend to tip the scales towards fosteriana, assuming that's the only other choice.

In a nursery with lots of plants and humming birds anything is possible, but the most likely parents are the 3 plants that all had flowered and were next to each other. One was a variegated Bert?, and I'm not so sure about the other two but certainly one has edmundoi in it. I'm pretty sure the seeds came from the first two and not the third but it's possible I also got seeds from the third but I don't think so.

Here are pics of the parents and a likely pollinator:

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Your last seedling looks quite a bit like the last pic above, so if that wasn't the seed parent, I agree it's a good candidate for pollen parent. If you don't know what it is, though, or even which one was the seed parent, then that's an awful lot of conjecture. It doesn't look like straight orlandiana. Could be a hybrid, but using the seedlings to deconstruct what appears to be a somewhat complicated lineage seems like kind of a long shot. Also, I think I mentioned before getting some self seeds from Bert once, so that opens up another possibility.

The blooms will probably help, but in the meantime I hope you will consider actually tagging some of your seed when you sow it. ;-)

I think that I'm just going to put Aechmea on the label and not worry about it.

The problem started when I just plucked the seed pods and put them in my shirt pocket with no way to know which was which. Of course, plucking seed pods from unlabeled plants isn't such a good idea either!

I did get a label on one of them and managed to remember which seed pod went with it. There was only one seed but I still have the seedling.

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Here are a couple glamor shots of a pup from a plant from this adventure, what I think has Q. edmundoi v rubrobracteata as a parent. I have two or three of these that look similar, but the way I grew them wasn't ideal and right now the pups look far nicer than the moms. These don't have any marks on top but do have lots of mauve/purple.

There is a dark, almost black verion of Q. edmundoi. Does anybody have it? I've seen it in person but couldn't acquire it.

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I have always said ,write down everything, tag the flowers etc , failure teaches us everything ,so i am with Lisa ,a tag in the seed etc will help you , best of luck sorting that out ,
Jack