Hi Jack,

I've finally made it back again and made a couple of quick comments in my original posting, but if we could continue the discussion here following your detailed comments, that would be great.

It's really interesting to see your comments. I just love Nova as a specimen plant in its own right, but I'm not so keen on building the sorts of weaknesses you point out into a whole heap of offspring. Now I'm wondering, when I try my inexperienced hand at some breeding, if I might be better off using a Nova hybrid as a parent - one that has been selected to avoid the problems you mention. Maybe this might give me the chance of picking up some of the good Nova colour and pattern characteristics, but where a lot of the weaknesses have already been weeded out by someone else?

Now that I'm thinking more about it, I can think of a couple of really interesting candidates. I have a Milky Way (combining gigantea and fosteriana - love those broad rounded leaves) and I have Uluru Sunset (combining Nova and fosteriana in a really nice plant). I wonder how I would go trying to cross those two? And I wonder if Uluru Sunset would self?

It would be great to get more of your thoughts on this. Maybe you've already tried both? I hope you don't mind me planning to experiment with a couple of your prized babies, but they're such beaut plants and their backgrounds suggest all sorts of really interesting possibilities. It will be a couple of years before my plants are ready to flower, but hey - there's nothing like having something to work towards!

But then again, maybe you can see problems with this. Love to hear from you again. Cheers, Paul