Last Year Results

I can't remember if I shared the pictures of this hybrid with you last year or not. Anyway, repetition is the mother of learning. The hybrid (no name so far) is pretty cool, especially its leaves. I would call it Abutilon ficifolium for their shape, if I could.

Last year, it boasted of a slow growing habit with short internodes. The flowers were medium-sized and quite wide, bell-shaped, looking downwards or sideways. At the beginning, the petals are cream colored, but on the second day of blooming they whiten, and the eye becomes more vivid (pinkish-lilac).

Unfortunately, abutilon hybrids are well-known for being deceiving and chameleon-like. Many times have I seen a hyrbrid change its color completely (even from light pink to deep coral) several blooming sessions later. So I only hope this one stays this way. Actually, this is my 'secret' mantra I repeat over and over again to the at-first-very-promising abutilon hybrids: 'STAYTHISWAYSTAYTHISWAYSTAYTHISWAY'. Maybe I don't repeat it loud or often enough because mostly it doesn't work.

Law and Order

Although we can rather safely claim that there are still very few abutilon breeders in the world, even right here, in St.Petersburg (and Moscow) the situation with new abutilon hybrids is getting confusing.

If we assign our hybrids only a number (and the average number of plantlings per breeder is perhaps about 50 a year), the numbers get repeated, and buyers get easily confused. Even the breeders can get confused: it's hard to keep track of the number sequence all through the sowing season. I rather prefer breaking the season into chunks, depending on the sowing "waves".

One might think that hybrid names can help. But it is not so. Unfortunately, breeders do not stay in touch or keep track of each other's plants all the time. And sadly, we got nowhere so far with a local abutilon hybrids register. As a result, such common names as, for example, 'Carmen' (for a red abutilon) started appearing in abundance.

Therefore, we have an obvious need for breeder's initials before the hybrid's name -- a common practice used by other plants hybridizers. From now on, I'm going to mark my seedlings as follows: AS (my initials) 1 (the number of hybrid in bloom) -1 (the number of series or sowing) /16 (the year when it started blooming). For example, this particular plantling was sown last year, but it didn't bloom. So this 2016 year it is going to bloom first in the first wave -- thus the number. 'AS' means that the seedling is a result of my own planned cross-pollination -- not a trick of nature, not an accident, not a self-pollination case, and not an outcome of someone else's or commercial seeds.

Those who know some Russian or use Google Chrome to auto-translate the web pages, can check out my website: www.AbutilonS.ru