(Reed, 2017) 50" M 10", dormant, diploid, 3 branches - 18 buds (Skydiving x Cherry Peacock). UF - cascade. Light lemon-cream/near white with a highly contrasting eye of dark purple; it has cream midribs and a light green throat.
Tall and thin, this bloom is pale with a dark-blood eye to haunt you. The bloom, not the scape, can be a little floppy after a big thunderstorm or overhead watering. But on a quiet morning it is stunning and huge.
(Reed, 2017) 36" EM 6", dormant, diploid, 3 branches - 20 buds (Sumerduck x Nathan Sommers) UF - cascade.
Peachy-orange creped petals and sepals with a rose-red blush eye and a green throat.
Like a happy chicken in the sun! The gypsy chickens on a local farm live in a coop built on the bed of an old pickup truck. Each morning they march down a ramp into the field to eat bugs and seeds. Then in the evening they march back up into their coop, and the truck is driven 100 feet to their next day's feast, and they are rotated around the hayfields. Not sure yet how far north this will thrive.
(Reed, 2017) 38" EM 7.5" dormant, diploid, 3 branches - 21 buds (Flight of Orchids x Earth Jewels) UF - cascade.
Soft lavender cascade with large plum-purple eye bleeding out onto the petals, has a green throat.
This luscious exotic is plum-beautiful colors. Plumbum is the latin word for lead, and is the name of a duckling paperweight that has traveled around our family for 60 years, made by my father in 1939 in engineering grad school at U. Michigan!
(Reed, 2017) 40" M 7.5" dormant, diploid, 3 branches-12 buds, ((Metzger's Purple Storm x (Peacock Curls x Cherry Peacock)) UF - crispate cascade.
Glowing ruby red with tiny white edge on sepals, and green throat that lightens into rose then red.
Out of purple and rose breeding, this has a cerise red color that has great intensity and purity.
Note from Jim: There is no clearer or brighter color in the garden than this flower. If you are looking for clarity, look no further.
(Reed, 2017) 55" La 5.75", dormant, diploid, 3 branches - 24 buds (Tree Turtles x Planet Max) UF - cascade.
Ruffled rose-lavender with a large green-to-cream throat ending in a slight watermark.
In the late garden, a tall clump of Vintage Virginia makes a real statement. Opening slowly, it looks a little old-fashioned in the morning, but opens to a wide bloom later in the day.