Glaucus Satsuki Azalea farm

[Glaucus]

What do they say again? In the world of breeding, it is said that only 1 in 1,000 satsuki seedlings will be released to the world, and only 1 in 10,000 satsuki seedlings will remain in the world. That is what it says on that very old Japanese website that inspired me to try for sure to do crossbreeding https://nao-k.jp/satuki/myhinsyu/myhinsyu.htm

I am really in a stage now to find what I should compost/throw away. But also to see what kind of outcomes a cross can give. These Maraschino results so far do inspire me to do more crosses with it. I feared that maybe I would get all purple double flowers, just like Maraschino, which i do not really like. For these hybrid seedlings, you can really the flower shape is an intermediate. Not the messy kurume flower shape. But also not the neatly cut satsuki flower have.
I will try to find the inferior versions of the same type of flower. There are going to be many that are solid red. Most of them will have to go.
Then the remainder will have more years to prove themselves.
It is really hard to judge these more nuanced traits like plant habit oir just overall good-doer nature. It takes many years. And maybe even taking cuttings of the original seedling, and doing some more objective evaluation/comparisons.

These photos do show what kind of flower the average satsuki x kurume hybrid will look like. If you like azaleas, then just having a random seedling, it will still be a nice plant with an enjoyable flower. Just not worth naming or propagating it en-masse, replacing earlier named cultivars.

I moved some more indoors to make them bloom a bit faster. But, some of them are already waking up just being outdoors.
I might only post new pictures of the most standout flowers.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

…and these numbers are from folks experienced in crossing for high quality satsuki etc…..

…..and then of the 1 in 1000 that make it into the open market perhaps less the 1 in 10 would catch on.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[pweifan]

I might only post new pictures of the most standout flowers.

Please post pictures of any standout growing habits as well!

 

[Glaucus]

For many of the new seedlings from 2021 and 2022, it is still too early to really judge plant habit. I see some from 2021 that fill out nicely.
But it is also a question of what you really like. And which growth habit is actually good for bonsai, which is kinda debatable.
It will be easier to show distinct kind of foliage or random seedlings, which may not amount to much long-term.
It's kinda interesting, or kinda azalea nerdy. And sometimes it is not even that easy to put into words why a certain plant looks good vs another one.
For the 2022 ones, for the kurume x satsuki hybrids specifically, I need to see which ones actually backbud naturally, and which ones display the more bald sparse open upright growth habit.
That will become more obvious in late summer 2023, when spontaneous backbudding on sun-exposed old wood naturally happens.

Flowering duration, to make it worth it to collect actually data, I feel one needs several plants. And the seasons can affect it by a lot, so you need to collect data over several years. Otherwise, what you are collecting is mostly the duration of flowering of that individual plant, in that individual location, during that individual spring. Not the true genetic disposition.

Also a bit wondering what would be good content for you guys. I may also post some before and after on pruning of some of my older non-seedling kurume azaleas that I tried to put on their way to a single trunk bonsai.

…and these numbers are from folks experienced in crossing for high quality satsuki etc…..

…..and then of the 1 in 1000 that make it into the open market perhaps less the 1 in 10 would catch on.

cheers
DSD sends

Yeah, but unlike in Japan, in Europe we don't have a dozen professionals and dedicated amateurs hybridizing satsuki.
There might be other challenges, however.

 

[jradics]

Here some pictures of my satsuki production line.
Most of these are hybrid seedlings. Some are cuttings of named cultivar.

Seedlings in the test grow:
View attachment 450234
View attachment 450235

View attachment 450236

These ones grow very well in full sun and quite organic-material poor sandy soil.
I expect solid purple flowers on these.


A whole bunch more with smaller leaves and more bushy plant habit:
View attachment 450237

I have hundreds of these.

Additionaly, I have hundreds of potted seedlings:
View attachment 450238


View attachment 450239

View attachment 450240

View attachment 450241

Why do I have so many? I am looking for a seedling with unusual or improved flowers that I can register as a new named cultivar.
The other ones with normal 'boring' flowers, I need to get rid off to make space for new seedlings.
I can already see that many of these azaleas are perfectly fine plants.
Easiest way for me to get rid of them is by composting them. However, I am also considering now to sell some of them.
These seedlings are not trained as bonsai. And neither have they been giving the pruning treatment to make a perfect spherical dense shrub for landscaping.
I don't prune them to be able to most quickly see their flowers and make a selection.

Additionally, I do have cuttings of named cultivars that I am growing into whips, to be trained as bonsai. I also can't keep all of these.
I hope to be able to offer some that really have additional value because of bonsai training in a few years.
View attachment 450242
(Don't mind the slug-ravaged chili plants in the top left. Slugs seem to leave the satsuki completely alone.)

Furthermore, in a few years I hope to be able to offer rare new Japanese satsuki cultivars as well.

I guess I need to figure out if there is actual additional demand in the EU zone. Then possibly build my own webshop. Or find someone who already has one and wants to take a whole bunch off me and sell them. Possibly sell them locally is also an option. And if there is no demand, produce less new cuttings.

Additionally, this thread can be a place for some more azalea educational stuff. I am usually too busy to take pictures of 'mundane' tasks like repotting.
I can maybe share more of what I am doing, but not sure what level of interest there is. Usually, it is not bonsai-specthose

 

[jradics]

those larg

Here some pictures of my satsuki production line.
Most of these are hybrid seedlings. Some are cuttings of named cultivar.

Seedlings in the test grow:
View attachment 450234
View attachment 450235

View attachment 450236

These ones grow very well in full sun and quite organic-material poor sandy soil.
I expect solid purple flowers on these.


A whole bunch more with smaller leaves and more bushy plant habit:
View attachment 450237

I have hundreds of these.

Additionaly, I have hundreds of potted seedlings:
View attachment 450238


View attachment 450239

View attachment 450240

View attachment 450241

Why do I have so many? I am looking for a seedling with unusual or improved flowers that I can register as a new named cultivar.
The other ones with normal 'boring' flowers, I need to get rid off to make space for new seedlings.
I can already see that many of these azaleas are perfectly fine plants.
Easiest way for me to get rid of them is by composting them. However, I am also considering now to sell some of them.
These seedlings are not trained as bonsai. And neither have they been giving the pruning treatment to make a perfect spherical dense shrub for landscaping.
I don't prune them to be able to most quickly see their flowers and make a selection.

Additionally, I do have cuttings of named cultivars that I am growing into whips, to be trained as bonsai. I also can't keep all of these.
I hope to be able to offer some that really have additional value because of bonsai training in a few years.
View attachment 450242
(Don't mind the slug-ravaged chili plants in the top left. Slugs seem to leave the satsuki completely alone.)

Furthermore, in a few years I hope to be able to offer rare new Japanese satsuki cultivars as well.

I guess I need to figure out if there is actual additional demand in the EU zone. Then possibly build my own webshop. Or find someone who already has one and wants to take a whole bunch off me and sell them. Possibly sell them locally is also an option. And if there is no demand, produce less new cuttings.

Additionally, this thread can be a place for some more azalea educational stuff. I am usually too busy to take pictures of 'mundane' tasks like repotting.
I can maybe share more of what I am doing, but not sure what level of interest there is. Usually, it is not bonsai-specif

 

[jradics]

those large leaves look more like Indica Azalea than the traditional Satsuki small leaf. . I suppose you have many varieties going

 

[Glaucus]

those large leaves look more like Indica Azalea than the traditional Satsuki small leaf. . I suppose you have many varieties going

Indeed, I believe those images are of a cross between a satsuki and a unknown azalea that may have some satsuki blood. The satsuki parent would be Hakusen, a sport of Shisen, which does not look like a typical satsuki.
And the other parent might be a Robin Hill hybrid with both indica and satsuki blood, but I was never able to ID this plant. I just know it is the most satsuki-like of plants that I found in a local garden.

In leaf shape and plant habit, there are many variations even within satsuki. I really do like the narrow dark leaf plant habit of Kinsai/Osakazuki #2/Chinzan/Kozan/Nikko. I think most bonsai people like that as well.
Many of my crosses are a non-satsuki with a satsuki, because the Japanese are already doing all of the satsuki x satsuki crosses. So if I do that, I would just be fishing from the same pond as many many Japanese professionals and very dedicated amateur satsuki enthusiasts. But I do have pure satsuki seedlings with flower buds growing. In fact, I moved one that is very typical with small leaves indoors last week.

 

[Glaucus]

double

 

[Glaucus]

Focusing on foliage and addressing the question 'how do I tell the difference between a satsuki and a kurume' a little bit, the following picture has a row of satsuki x kurume hybrids in the back. With 50% kurume, the kurume plant habit seems pretty dominant.
While the plants in front, with the smaller and narrower leaves are 85.7% satsuki, with 62.5% of the genes coming from Kozan (also of Nikko and Hi no Maru fame). As well as 12.5% Kinsai.


Now these satsuki-type seedlings are highly specific in their small narrow leaves, as there are also many other varieties of satsuki with larger and rounder leaves.
But this is the typical plant habit of many of the most popular cultivar for bonsai, namely the Kozan/Nikko/Nyohozan/Korin/Hi no Maru/Kinsai group.

The ones in the back are Kangiten x Čertoryje seedlings, meaning they are 50% Czech kurume. Czech azaleas are very tough as they grow pretty far north (compared to Japan and the US) and far away from the ocean, so a continental climate. Additionally, they were bred in an area with a rain shadowed area.

The seedlings moved indoors are taking off:


Tons of new leaves, that are possibly going to obscure the flowers that are to be expected in about 2 weeks.

There is one indoor Kangiten x Čertoryje seedling that started to flower:


Seems like a solid red flower, in both meanings of the word 'solid'. I think this one is superior to the other Kangiten x Čertoryje seedling. The blotch/speckles are more prominent in this one. Maybe the red could be a deeper colour and less orangy?
The satsuki flower shape is coming out a fair amount, I would say. Maybe the next step would be to change this type of satsuki x European kurume into having more Kozan-like foliage.

 

[keyfen06]

Focusing on foliage and addressing the question 'how do I tell the difference between a satsuki and a kurume' a little bit, the following picture has a row of satsuki x kurume hybrids in the back. With 50% kurume, the kurume plant habit seems pretty dominant.
While the plants in front, with the smaller and narrower leaves are 85.7% satsuki, with 62.5% of the genes coming from Kozan (also of Nikko and Hi no Maru fame). As well as 12.5% Kinsai.

Out of curiosity, how do you calculate what percentage of genes come from each cultivar? And, if you crossed a satsuki with something such as a Czech kurume and the offspring turned out to be of good quality, would it be accepted as a new Satsuki cultivar or would it be part of a different group as it's not 100% satsuki?

 

[Glaucus]

Out of curiosity, how do you calculate what percentage of genes come from each cultivar?

It is not a completely accurate calculation, in part of genetic recombination. But the narrow leaf seedlings are a cross between 'Kozan', and my own seedling that was the result of a cross between 'Alexander' and 'Hekisui'.
Now 'Hekisui' is a sport of 'Aozora' and is the product of a cross between 'Aikoku' and 'Kozan'. While 'Alexander' is the result of a cross between the species R.nakaharae and 'Kinsai'.
So that means Kozan is the parent and the great-grandpatent of these seedlings. So 50% from the parent Kozan. And 25% from Hekisui. And Hekisui is half Kozan, so that makes 50% + 12.5%.
Now chromosomes get shuffled up in a process called genetic recombination. That way, the chrososomes you pass on are a combination of both your parent's chromosomes. True for us and for plants. That way, you do not pass on either a chromosome from your mom or from your dad. But it is a mixture. And this mixture it not a 50/50 split. So you do get 50% of your DNA from your mom and 50% from your dad (ignoring mitochondrial DNA and the size of the Y vs X chromosomes). But you do not get 25% from both grandparents.

Now the DNA in the nucleus of your cells is very important, of course. But you also have mitochondria, which have their own DNA. And this you inherit only from your mom.
Plants do not have mitochondria, but they do have chloroplasts. And this DNA gets mostly inherited through the female/seed parent line as well. But apparently unlike for humans in plants there are exceptions.
And this I did also not account for in my percentage calculations.

And, if you crossed a satsuki with something such as a Czech kurume and the offspring turned out to be of good quality, would it be accepted as a new Satsuki cultivar or would it be part of a different group as it's not 100% satsuki?

Another good question. This depends on what your definition of 'satsuki' is. If for example I send a cutting of this specific Satsuki x Czech Kurume to Japan, and they really like it there, and they register it with their satsuki society, and satsuki nurseries take it in production as just another satsuki, and it gets featured in satsuki bonsai show, I am pretty sure everyone would refer to it as a satsuki. The same way we refer to 'Kakuo' as a satsuki, despite it also being a hybrid between a satsuki and a kurume-type azalea. Now, my hybrids becoming big in Japan is not one of my goals to be honest and probably unlikely, but not impossible, to happen. But it makes for a good example.

However, one can already say that even a cross between two Japanese satsuki cultivar made by a western hybridizer, given a western name, is not a satsuki.

Personally, I would say the red flowering azalea pictured is not a satsuki. But, if I cross it with the narrow leaf seedlings that I do have, I might change my opinion and call it a satsuki-type.
Because then 25% of the DNA would be kurume. 6.25% would be R.nakaharae. And all the rest would be satsuki. And those plants could look very much as a satsuki in every way, possessing all the traits we associate with them.

Not sure what the Japanese experts with influence would say. In the end, it doesn't really matter what we call it. But what it is. And what value it has.
There isn't any satsuki police that I am aware of, so no one would put me in bonsai prison for calling it a 'satsuki' anyway. But you can never be completely sure!

Now, if my azaleas ever were to become 'famous', they may even get their own hybrid group name. I kind want to call them 'Vloed azaleas', after the local creek and name of the suburb here.
Like the US hybridizer Morrison did with the Glenn Dales and later Back Acres.
And it is also a simple non-exotic Dutch word which people can remember. Many hybrid groups are named after the last name of the hybridizer, but I really don't like that.
Now especially in the bonsai community 'satsuki' seems to be a label of value/quality/authenticity/exclusivity/exoticness to it. So maybe marketing-wise 'Vloed satsuki' would be better. But if kurume traits are dominant, one cannot really call it a satsuki, I feel.
Naming things is hard, though. Not sure yet at all on the 'Vloed' thing.

 

[keyfen06]

It is not a completely accurate calculation, in part of genetic recombination. But the narrow leaf seedlings are a cross between 'Kozan', and my own seedling that was the result of a cross between 'Alexander' and 'Hekisui'.
Now 'Hekisui' is a sport of 'Aozora' and is the product of a cross between 'Aikoku' and 'Kozan'. While 'Alexander' is the result of a cross between the species R.nakaharae and 'Kinsai'.
So that means Kozan is the parent and the great-grandpatent of these seedlings. So 50% from the parent Kozan. And 25% from Hekisui. And Hekisui is half Kozan, so that makes 50% + 12.5%.
Now chromosomes get shuffled up in a process called genetic recombination. That way, the chromosomes you pass on are a combination of both your parent's chromosomes. True for us and for plants. That way, you do not pass on either a chromosome from your mom or from your dad. But it is a mixture. And this mixture it not a 50/50 split. So you do get 50% of your DNA from your mom and 50% from your dad (ignoring mitochondrial DNA and the size of the Y vs X chromosomes). But you do not get 25% from both grandparents.

Is genetic recombination an umbrella term for independent assortment and crossing over, or are there different processes in plants?

I can’t remember where I read this, but I can remember hearing something about breeding between species results in infertile offspring. I’m not sure if this is true, but if it is, does this cause any challenges for you when breeding between R. indicum, R. obtusum and R. nakaharae?

 

[Jaerax]

Is genetic recombination an umbrella term for independent assortment and crossing over, or are there different processes in plants?

I can’t remember where I read this, but I can remember hearing something about breeding between species results in infertile offspring. I’m not sure if this is true, but if it is, does this cause any challenges for you when breeding between R. indicum, R. obtusum and R. nakaharae?

Are you referring to the ‘vloedgraaf’?

 

[Glaucus]

Is genetic recombination an umbrella term for independent assortment and crossing over, or are there different processes in plants?

Not sure about the details. It ought to occur during meosis and it is supposedly one event with one mechanism. I am not an expert on this at al and the wikipedia article has a lot of vague language. Seems we don't fully understand it in humans or the simplest examples like E coli bacteria.
The adaptive immune system uses a special form called V(D)J recombination to generate antibodies against basically all possible 3d protein structures. But it is not related to inheritance at all. So in that sense the term is at least an umbrella for both meosis chromosome shuffling and V(D)J recombination for our immune cells.

I can’t remember where I read this, but I can remember hearing something about breeding between species results in infertile offspring. I’m not sure if this is true, but if it is, does this cause any challenges for you when breeding between R. indicum, R. obtusum and R. nakaharae?

We all learn in high school biology class that a species means species A cannot reproduce fertile offspring with species B, and hence they are not both species A. But this species definition is not useful in practice.
Basically all evergreen azaleas have no fertility barrier in between them. Which would result in very different looking plants in very different areas being labeled the same species. In biology there is always the lumpers vs splitter debate.

But there are reasons why a cross of evergreen azaleas would not work. For example, one of your parents lacks a sexual parts. A double flower can usually not be a pollen parent, because it doesn't produce pollen.
Similarly, when all chromosomes are doubled, aka polyploidy, this can reduce fertility.
Now R. obtusum is already a label for not a species found in nature, but for hybrids, either natural occurring or made by humans, between R.kiusianum and R.kaempferi. But when I sow seeds the mixture of species inside the hybrid makes no difference.
I raised seeds from a new azalea from Germany named 'Wischi Waschi' which has a family tree that goes back 9 generations deep for some branches. And assuming this tree is correct, I count at least 9 different species of evergreen azalea that we humans have defined. And those seeds germinate perfectly fine.
The only issue is that somehow very old cultivar, that have been propagated asexually for 100+ years, sometimes are poor at producing pollen and setting seeds. But when they do, germination is normal.
You can try to make much wider crosses within the genus of Rhododendron, hybridizing between evergreen azaleas and true rhododendron or deciduous azaleas. However, this is very challenging and usually doesn't work at all.

Are you referring to the ‘vloedgraaf’?

There are several nice places in the Netherlands with the name 'Vloed' or similar. I don't mean the place in Limburg.

 

[Glaucus]

Some of the better foliage on seedlings I am raising. You can still see the leaves that grew last year and were on these plants all-winter. So these are very evergreen and the leaves in winter did not get any discoloration, damage, reduced chlorophyll, spots. Additionally, the leaves are glossy and narrow, like R.indicum. You can also see the slow and compact growth habit. No flower buds on these yet. Probably a few next year and a good number of them in 2025.

Back row are [Alexander x Hekisui] x Kozan. Front row is Hakurei x [Alexander x Hekisui]
You can see a tag says 'Mi' from 'Miyuki'. This parent azalea was sold to me as a 'Miyuki', but it always had white flowers only, with star-shaped flowers:


Original 'Miyuki'/'Hakurei' plant.

Foliage very similar to Kozan, but it grows a bit faster. And flowers are a more star-shaped version of Kozan, but white.
Never saw a red or pink spot, so I do not think it was Miyuki, despite the label.

Sadly, this plant died a few years ago. Dry summer and not enough roots on the plant, somehow.
However, I do still have a cutting.
And, the seedlings can have attractive foliage.
Leaves of Kozan, Korin, Hakurei, Chinzan, Juko and a few others are superior to the leaves of the newer satsuki like Suisen, Kisshoten, Moeka, Asuka, and many others.
However, what is needed is the growth rate of satsuki like Asuka and Moeka, with the attractive very evergreen foliage of the forementioned. But with the hardiness and reliablity of European kurume-types like Hino Crimson, Maruschka and Kermesina.
That is still work in progress.

Today I counted that I have 1235 azalea seedlings in individual pots, with 15 specific crosses having at least 20 plants each, up to 100 fort two of them.
The kurume x satsuki hybrids outdoors are also starting to flower. Expect a few of them to open in 1 to 2 weeks. Which means that a few of them are as early as their kurume parents.

 

[Glaucus]

The first 100% satsuki seedling opened it's flowers:





This is a seedling obtained from crossing a plant labeled 'Suisen'* with 'Hekisui'. This flower really turned out as a pure white with pink version of 'Hekisui', inheriting the white & red colour scheme from the 'Suisen' parent, where 'Hekisui' is a very pale pink with stripes. The flower shape is not as neatly rounded as 'Hekisui', however.

The plant habit of this is azalea very typical for the satsuki popular for bonsai, like Kozan, Nikko, Aozora and Akemi no Tsuki.
People often ask what the difference is between satsuki and ordinary garden azaleas (usually kurume-types of similar).

So this is a picture of this satsuki seedling, together with a hybrid between a satsuki and a kurume:


Where it is important to know that the seedling on the left was sown in autumn 2020 and the one on the right in autumn 2021. So the tall one is a year younger. It will look way bigger when they are the same age.
Also notice the flower of the one on the right is completely trapped in by the new shoots, which have been growing very fast.


That's 8 new 6cm long shoots. Now, it was grown indoors for a while, but this is the type of growth I cannot get on pure satsuki from Japan.
If I could, it would be a breeze to propagate a ton of satsuki very easily and quickly. It would also help growing fat trunks in a realstic time frame outside of Japan.
I have another satsuki x kurume seedling like this one, with similar shoots. But that one already has terminal flower buds on all of those shoots.
With the indoor grow setup, it managed to grow new flower buds just 1 month after it finished blooming. That one may bloom once more this year.
That's pretty crazy, actually. I sow a seed in autumn 2021. And by the end of summer 2023, it might have bloomed twice.
The ease of growth of the satsuki x European kurume hybrids and their ability to grow flower buds is impressive. Not disappointed at all, even though I strongly prefer the variegated flowers.

The inner branch structure of the satsuki seedling looks like this:


Very strong basal dominance. But not creeping at all like I get with R.nakaharae genes mixed in. Note, no pruning was done. It is actually budding out once more at 3 spots just 1cm above the soil line, on some of those branches.
This is the backbudding nature of satsuki that almost all kurume lack.

Now, I need to get those striped flowers on those fast-growing azaleas. And have the flower shape be neater, a pink stripe that can also become a dark red one, and maybe some rarer more exotic variegation patterns.
Work in progress...

 

[Perplexody]

You're on the verge of some mad science here

 

[Glaucus]

Sometime in 2012, I saw a picture of a satsuki bonsai with variable flowers and I decided 'I want that'. Since I was growing plants from seed for fun, I wanted to grow my own satsuki azaleas from seeds.
However, I found out there was no such a thing on the market. Satsuki azaleas were only bonsai imported from Japan. And people couldn't really tell me what the difference was between rhododendron, azalea and satsuki.
All azalea and rhododendron found at garden centers were very different. I looked online and found out there were only a few exceptions.
I learned about an American azalea named 'Hilda Niblett'. which was at that time sold by Esveld (maple and rhododendron specialty nursery in the Netherlands).

Sadly, it seems no one is selling 'Hilda Niblett' in Europe any longer. If you are in the US, you will have more luck. Notice mine has a lot of all-red flowers, which means those parts of the plant will never produce lighter or variegated flowers.

'Hilda Niblett' was a Robin Hill azalea developed in the US by Gatrell.

The Robin Hill Azaleas: Home

Gatrell used Chugai satsuki azaleas that came to the US back in the late 1930s.

QBARS - v21n3 The Satsuki Azaleas

One such azalea was 'Gettoku' ( sometimes misspelled Getsutoku). This is a large-flowering satsuki from the times before satsuki crossed over into bonsai and very large flowers were all the rage.
So all I had to do was buy a 'Hilda Niblett' and cross it with some other azalea with satsuki blood, and raise my own variagated satsuki seedlings.
The other parent I had in mind was 'Alexander', which also has satsuki blood, but is very different.
'Hilda Niblett' is a maruba satsuki with round leaves and very large flowers with ruffled petals, but a western origin and name.
'Alexander' was a narrow leaf small flower hybrid of rhododendron indicum and R.nakaharae, a creeping red-flowering variety from Taiwan.
Two very different azaleas, which is good for hybridizing. So I just pollinate some flowers, raise the seed, and get the seedlings with lots of satsuki-type flowers.
Easy right?

Not so much. I could not get seed pods to form on 'Hilda Niblett', no matter how hard I tried to pollinate them. And 'Hilda Niblett' itself did not have pollen.
So 'Hilda Niblett' seemed a dead end.
I did cross 'Alexander' with other satsuki I acquired later, but it turns out the solid red flowers are dominant. So no multicoloured variageted sporting flowers from that one either.
Only later I learned that 'Gettoku' was a tetraplod, which means that 'Hilda Niblett' was almost certainly a triploid, making it near-sterile.
One research paper suggested using tetraploid pollen on a triploid seed parent. I had obtained another small satsuki cutting of 'Miharu' a sport of 'Suisen' and a known tetraploid.



However, my 'Miharu' cuttings were tiny with only a few flowers, and no pollen in their anthers either.
For a few years, I gave up on 'Hilda Niblett'. But as my plants grew larger I noticed that 'Hilda Niblett' was a much better grower in my garden than most Japanese satsuki.
I also learned that with triploid azaleas, you just have to try and fail until you somehow get lucky.
So in 2017 or 2018, I frantically began to pollinate many flowers on my 'Hilda Niblett' trying to get at least 1 seed pod to set.
And two pods did form. However, the seeds didn't germinate.
I tried once more in 2020. Now, with a much larger 'Miharu' plant, some flowers did produce pollen:



This produced some more pods.
Almost none of the seeds germinated. Only from, a cross between 'Hilda Niblett' x 'Miharu', I got a few seedlings to grow, almost at a normal germination rate.



One of my 'Hilda Niblett' seedlings had a single flower bud.
I wonder if the largest seedling in that tray back in 2020 is the seedling I now have.
It has been a long journey, but this spring 2023, the first one finally flowered:


Nothing spectacular, but it took some effort to finally get my own polyploid maruba satsuki-style seedling to flower. And with the pale colour and a darker pink stripe on the bottom left, it has potential to show more colour variation.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Wow! That’s a tale of trial, tribulation, perseverance and finally a breakthrough! Congratulations Mark!

Just a side note. Not enough of the leaves came through in the photo of this plant to see how these turned out. When you get a chance can you please post an image of them?

cheers
DSD sends