Topic: First pea flowers!

[Silverleaf]

Well here's a new flower colour for you!


Experimental pea Ra has the genes b (which usually makes flowers pink) and ar (which makes flowers bluish violet). These genes combine together somehow to make pale rose pink, I've no idea how that works! It's really subtle and quite pretty.


Purple Podded flowers showing nicely the colour shift as the flower gets older.

[Paulines7]

Beautiful flowers!  I love the salmon and pale blue. 

Are you coming to the A4A get-together at Walsall Allotments next month?  I would love to hear more about your pea experimental crosses. 

Hmm. I don't know anything about the get-together. Unfortunately I don't think I can spare the money to get public transport down there (and I don't drive). Shame, because it's only maybe an hour's drive from Chesterfield. :(

Details of the get-together is here:  http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,77616.20.html

We had a lovely time last year.  We all provided something for the lunch table while Betty, Shirl and an allotment friend kindly provided teas, coffee and cold drinks.  If you wanted to come, maybe someone from the Chesterfield area could give you a lift.   

[galina]

Well here's a new flower colour for you!

Wonder what it will look like today.  Very elegant.  How would you describe the colour - ivory?

[Silverleaf]

Well here's a new flower colour for you!

Wonder what it will look like today.  Very elegant.  How would you describe the colour - ivory?

Today the flower's very pale, like cream or ivory as you say. It's described by the JIC as "pale rose pink" so I'll go along with that, although it only seems to be that colour when the flower is young.


Ra flowers. The younger one is a delicate pink but the older hardly has any colour at all. I prefer the more intense colours myself, but it's nice anyway.


Haka's flowers are living up to their description of "bluish violet". I love purples, so this one's very appealing to me. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like in a couple of days, much bluer I expect.

[Silverleaf]

Beautiful flowers!  I love the salmon and pale blue. 

Are you coming to the A4A get-together at Walsall Allotments next month?  I would love to hear more about your pea experimental crosses. 

Hmm. I don't know anything about the get-together. Unfortunately I don't think I can spare the money to get public transport down there (and I don't drive). Shame, because it's only maybe an hour's drive from Chesterfield. :(

Details of the get-together is here:  http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,77616.20.html

We had a lovely time last year.  We all provided something for the lunch table while Betty, Shirl and an allotment friend kindly provided teas, coffee and cold drinks.  If you wanted to come, maybe someone from the Chesterfield area could give you a lift.   

Thanks for the link, it does sound like a nice event. :)

[Silverleaf]

Well, probability has conspired against me. One of my experimental peas, Legacy, was specifically chosen because it has the ce gene which makes the flowers cerise. I was looking forward to that. Due to shortages, I only got 4 seeds and this has given me 3 plants.

I was concerned as they grew that they weren't showing any pink colour in the foliage, and the flower buds looked suspiciously white. It seems that all three of my plants have no pink at all, making me suspect they all have aa (no red/purple pigment in the plant at all). I knew that some of them might, but I feel a bit unlucky that they all do. Bah! :(

So I have two choices. I'm pretty sure all the plants do have ce, it's just not being shown because aa is "blocking" it. Now I can either:

1) Cross Legacy with a pea with A (one which shows purple/red somewhere) like Golden Sweet maybe, and hope to see cerise in the F2. Trouble is, the A I want is dominant so cerise plants may well be carrying the recessive a which will throw white plants in future generations. Not ideal.

2) Sow some more seeds now from a different line which doesn't have a, and risk not having flowers available for crossing. I do have 12 ce seeds.

I think 2 is the better option. I want to cross a ce pea with a cr pea. I know I have a few cr seeds left so I could sow both at the same time... Let's do that.

[Silverleaf]

Basically I want to do three crosses to create three new colours that I don't already have. I'm dying to see these colours, but I'll have to wait a couple of years unless I can squeeze in another generation later this year maybe...

ar cr is light mauve. I'm planning to cross Haka (ar) x Unity (cr), assuming Unity flowers in time.

ce cr is pale rose purple. This is the Legacy x Unity I was planning to do, which will now be with the as-yet-unnamed ce pea.

cr b is antique rose. Fanatic (b) x Unity (cr).

[artichoke]

I love the purple flowers of “Carouby de Maussane”, also their huge sweet flat pods that I have been picking, but I guess these are not part of your esoteric experiments?

[Silverleaf]

I love the purple flowers of “Carouby de Maussane”, also their huge sweet flat pods that I have been picking, but I guess these are not part of your esoteric experiments?

Afraid not, I don't have that one!

What I'm growing this year: Telephone, Golden Sweet, Salmon Flowered, Elisabeth, Sugar Ann, Sugar Bon, Jeyes, Waverex, and some experimental material (12 varieties from the USDA and JIC which have number codes, so I've nicknamed them after characters in my favourite board game - Absolute Zero, Bunker, Fanatic, Haka, Legacy, Ra, Scholar, Tachyon, Tempest, Unity, Visionary and Wraith). I'm going to add another experimental pea too, but I haven't decided on a name for it just yet.

[galina]

Sorry about the Legacy problem.  These experimental lines you have been able to get from the seedbank are not very uniform, are they?  At least you got another variety with the same flower colours. 

I am a bit confused by bicolour purple pea flowers, because there is such a variation over the short life of a pea flower.  And flowers in bright sunlight look different to flowers in the shade. 

Artichoke,  I am also growing Carouby de Maussane this year.  Very pretty and huge, huge pods this year.  We had some steamed with dinner last night and they were so sweet, but the size of large beans!  Such a good variety.   

I love big flat podded mangetout  peas.  Wonder what the genes involved are in the large pods versus the smaller sized mangetout peas?

[Paulines7]

I love the purple flowers of “Carouby de Maussane”, also their huge sweet flat pods that I have been picking, but I guess these are not part of your esoteric experiments?

Afraid not, I don't have that one!

What I'm growing this year: Telephone, Golden Sweet, Salmon Flowered, Elisabeth, Sugar Ann, Sugar Bon, Jeyes, Waverex, and some experimental material (12 varieties from the USDA and JIC which have number codes, so I've nicknamed them after characters in my favourite board game - Absolute Zero, Bunker, Fanatic, Haka, Legacy, Ra, Scholar, Tachyon, Tempest, Unity, Visionary and Wraith). I'm going to add another experimental pea too, but I haven't decided on a name for it just yet.

I have a box of Carouby De Maussane which I bought in France.  I will bring some with me.  After lunch, last year, we had a seed swap and a tour around the allotments. 

[Silverleaf]

Sorry about the Legacy problem.  These experimental lines you have been able to get from the seedbank are not very uniform, are they?  At least you got another variety with the same flower colours.

Some of them aren't, no. Most are fine but a couple of lines seem to have a mixed in. I've just been unlucky that none of my Legacy plants are coloured.

I'm going to sow some of the other ce seeds today, along with my remaining Unity ones. I think I'll call the new cerise one Beacon (Legacy's daughter in my board game is called Beacon).

[Silverleaf]

Well seed sowing didn't happen as I slept late and then went on a manure quest! We bagged up nine sacks of horse manure and I planted out courgettes in big pots of the stuff - never had much luck with courgettes before but I'm hoping that they'll like it in there. I love courgettes, so fingers crossed.

The peas are looking good. Almost everything in the breeding/saving area is in flower and setting pods now, and the peas in the veg bed are starting to flower too so I might actually be able to eat some soon!

I have to admit that I did nab a pod from Elisabeth even though I need to save as many of them as possible for seed - it would be unscientific not to taste them, right? ;) It was really good too, crunchy and a little bit sweet, and like all good mangetouts it reminded me of the taste of raw peanuts. I'm absolutely going to grow them in my main pea bed for eating next year.

[Silverleaf]

Well now I'm just waiting for Unity, Scholar, Wraith and Visionary to flower. Nothing very exciting to tell right now though!


Fanatic is also pink, but a paler pink. This plant doesn't have tendrils - there are extra leaflets instead.

[Jayb]

Don't know how I missed this thread! Lovely pictures 

[Jayb]

Galina, have you tried crossing Elisabeth with Salmon Flowered?

I've an F1 cross, Salmon Flowered Crown x Elisabeth x Sugar Magnolia (F1), of the 3 plants growing, 2 are pink flowered and 1 is purple.

[Silverleaf]

Did you cross Salmon Flowered with Elisabeth, and then cross the resulting F1 with Sugar Magnolia?

Or did you do Elisabeth x Sugar Magnolia first, and then cross that with Salmon Flowered?

[Silverleaf]

News from today: my Telephone peas for seed saving are finally starting to flower! I did Telephone x Elisabeth, but there's not much else to do with the peas right now until I get more Telephone flowers.

So for my multi-coloured mix I'm aiming for, I was thinking I'd take a keep-it simple approach. I'll cross as many differently-coloured plants as I can to Telephone, and grow loads of the resulting seeds together. In the F2 and further generations I'll just save seeds from anything that has interesting flower and/or pod colours. Should be interesting!

[Jayb]

Did you cross Salmon Flowered with Elisabeth, and then cross the resulting F1 with Sugar Magnolia?

Or did you do Elisabeth x Sugar Magnolia first, and then cross that with Salmon Flowered?

I already had the F1 cross Elisabeth x Sugar Magnolia which I'd made previously. Last year I used pollen from this cross to make a further cross using Salmon Flowered as the female.

I'm fairly sure I have the cross Elisabeth x Salmon Flowered but I'm not sure if I've sown it or not, I'll have a look when I get the chance.

[Silverleaf]

Did you cross Salmon Flowered with Elisabeth, and then cross the resulting F1 with Sugar Magnolia?

Or did you do Elisabeth x Sugar Magnolia first, and then cross that with Salmon Flowered?

I already had the F1 cross Elisabeth x Sugar Magnolia which I'd made previously. Last year I used pollen from this cross to make a further cross using Salmon Flowered as the female.

I'm fairly sure I have the cross Elisabeth x Salmon Flowered but I'm not sure if I've sown it or not, I'll have a look when I get the chance.

Thank you, that tells me that Salmon Flowered and Elisabeth have the same gene for pink flowers (I'm pretty sure we're looking at the b gene.) Good to know.