Beautiful, Kim. What an Easter treat. Spring is here.

Wow, these are really lovely. It must be wonderful to see them bloom for the first time..

Really pretty! Good work!

I can't believe how large and really beautiful these crosses are, and they have such nice stamens. I'm assuming they're also spring-flowering only. Still, one bush of any of these would be awesome.

Really lovely - so happy and springy! I love the color of the upper left and the petal shape and stamens of the light/white. It looks so sweet and innocent.

Thank you! Whole plant shots aren't going to be as much fun as they're all trapped in fifteen gallon nursery cans and jammed together along the fence between the houses. Nothing "pretty" I'm afraid. Comtesse, no ma'am, not ignorant at all! The pink came from L56-1, a Jim Sproul (Eyeconic Lemonade series and quite a few others) red miniature. I don't know if recurrence is to be expected from any of them yet or now. Some may come with maturity...or not. There are recurrent Banksiae hybrids. RememberPurezza? One of the many reasons I'm using that, too. Hybride di Castello reportedly can also repeat. Robert Rippetoe raisedLila Banks which flowers regularly. I hope by using them with miniatures I can coax repeat from them while maintaining some of the original appeal.

I don't get a violet scent from anything Banksiae. I do get a strong clove scent from drying stamen and anthers from Lutescens and detected a bit of that from those open flowers this morning. The Basye seedlings have the same odd scent 86-3 does.

I, too, would love to see what these plants look like when planted in the ground and allowed to grow to their full potential. Would they be enormous vines like Banksiae? Would they be moderate climbers? Would they cover themselves in bloom? How are the flowers held, in graceful drooping clusters or in tight bundles? I guess I'm not so concerned about remontancy. Both the white and lutea versions of R. banksiae are quite commonly planted even though they are are once-bloomers, because the show is so impressive. Thanks for sharing. Your results are exciting.

Thank you. I agree with you, I'd LOVE to see them released into the ground and permitted to attain their full potential. I, unfortunately, don't have that kind of room. I believe they are going to be rather large climbers, with the smaller L56863 one being smaller than the larger one. The larger one has foliage and canes much larger than the smaller one. Their flowers are more often held individually along the canes rather than small bunches like Banksiaes. 86-3 does similarly. I think they would flower at every horizontal bud. That's what they appear to be trying to do now.

Here are a few "plant" shots.

The larger L56-1 X Basye's Amphidiploid 86-3

Smaller L56-1 X Basye's Amphidploid 86-3

It's quite difficult to see one plant against the others, particularly as they are growing together and through each other. But, what are you going to do when you want monsters and don't have monster room?

So fascinating! I’m in awe of this wizardry! I just adore these singles, too, especially after seeing how many pollinators flock to them. And I just realized it must be the same reason—how do they navigate so many layers of petals in those big frothy type?! I guess they are tinier with specialized equipment, lol. All the more impressive that you can do this, Kim! :-)

Thank you. Absolutely, the greater the number of rows of petals, the lower the fertility, primarily due to the anthers' ability to pollinate the stigma because of its being shielded by all those petals and petaloids. Of course, those extra petals do make it more difficult, if not impossible, for bees to get to their target, too. We had drizzle over night and the plants are pushing like crazy, so there were more Banksiae buds to process.

They're just so darned small!

Please give us an update on these when they bloom this year!

Very pretty. Reminds me of Fruhlingsmorgen.

Kim, have you found 86-3 to have potential for thornless progeny? Those are fun seedlings!

Thank you, Philip. So far, only one thornless offspring. That was putting 86-3 on Lynnie. Being triploid, it produced a weird thing that demanded open ground, so I passed it on to Robert in Rancho Mirage where it could be released and used. Hopefully, it will lend a hand producing interesting things to commerce.