Daffodil breeding - first attempt

I have done a lot of vegetable breeding over the years.  I have developed some excellent new varieties of tomatoes, potato, corn, berries, herbs, and other edible things.  To a far lesser extent I have dabbled in breeding of ornamental plants.  

One of my first efforts at breeding daffodils is below.  Unlike vegetables, growing from seed is tricky, but breeding spring flowering bulbs does not take too long.  

To create a new variety of daffodils you do not have to spend years and produce/cull many generations (usually 7 to 10) to stabilise the line.  On the other hand, once you have a new variety of daffodil that you like, the bulbs are divided, bulbs produce exact genetic clones, and you have new variety.  The hardest part is getting daffodil seeds, and germinating them into seedlings.

My new daffodil

Seed grown daffodil

This daffodil variety produces small flowers that are highly fragrant.  The numbers of flowers per stem vary a bit with 8 or 9 being most common.  They seem rather vigorous, and happily divide in my garden.  Which I like!

Not every bulb produces a flower stem every year, I think that is pretty normal for daffodils.  Larger bulbs produce flowers, smaller bulbs don't.  I think if I gave them better soil and less competition I would probably get more flowers and more bulb division, but I don't have the space for such things.  Even with poor soil and a lot of competition they are performing well.

This daffodil makes an excellent cut flower.  They have multiple fragrant blooms per stem.  Each cluster lasts a long time in a vase.  Each flower is small, around 3cm, the stems grow to around 40cm tall, they could probably be taller or shorter depending on the conditions.

They produce flowers early this year, opening the first few days of August.  This year winter has been mild, so they may open a little later on a cold year.  Even if they open later they are still one of the first daffodils to bloom in my garden.

Each flower is about 3cm

Stems are about 40cm long

The bulbs do divide quickly so it should not take too long to build up numbers of these daffodils.  

Being seed grown they are genetically different from any other variety around.  I need to look around and see if they are noticeably different from other varieties.  If they are I need to name them.

If I ever have enough to sell I will list them on my for sale page when the bulbs are dormant.

Purple asparagus spears

I grow a few different varieties of asparagus, most I grew from seed.  Asparagus is a perennial vegetable that can produce for decades.

By far my favourite tasting asparagus variety is an old heirloom variety called Precoce D'Argentuil.  It has spears that are mostly green with a little bit of purple.  It is a large vigorous variety, which is great for home gardeners.  It is far better than anything you will ever buy from the markets.

I also like purple asparagus.  It is often sweeter than the green varieties.  For me they usually produce fat and high quality spears.  I do find purple asparagus to be less productive than the green varieties, so it is a bit of a trade off.  I grow several varieties of green and purple asparagus, so get to eat the ones I like best.

Below are some photos of my purple asparagus.  I have put a green spear next to them for comparison.

Purple asparagus next to a green one for comparison

The spears do get much deeper purple colour than this, but I didn't pick them until a bit late so they started to get a bit long and get a bit more green.  As purple asparagus spears open out they turn green just like any other variety.

I normally stop picking when they spears get a bit thin so the plant can gather energy for the next year.  Some years I keep picking a bit too long.  The spears in these phots are a bit thinner than I would normally pick, but as long as I don't pick this hard the following year the plants don't seem to mind.

You can also blanch the spears and force purple asparagus to produce white spears.  This is very tender, and not hard to do.

Purple asparagus 

Purple asparagus spears

I have a few different purple asparagus plants.  Some are male, others are female.  I prefer female plants as the spears are fatter, better quality, and the plants more productive.  Male plants are good too as they do not produce berries and you don't have to remove seedlings to prevent them from crowding the bed.  As my plants are seed grown I just have a mix of both male and female, for most home gardeners this is not an issue.  

I do sometimes sell asparagus crowns of different heirloom varieties.  I normally sell dormant crowns of one or two year old plants late winter or early spring.  I do not know which are male and which are female.  I tried to tag them while they were in flower but by the time they are dormant I tend to lose track of which is which.  When I do have them for sale they are listed on my for sale page.

Vietnamese coriander flowering

Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata) is an edible perennial herb from south east Asia.  I wrote an earlier post with Vietnamese coriander growing notes.  This is a very simple to grow, productive, and great tasting edible herb.  This is not related to coriander in any way, but can often be used in a similar way.

Vietnamese coriander loves heat, humidity, water, yet strangely does not appear to like full sun all day (although this may just be in my climate where humidity is too low).  For me leaf production is best when it gets part shade.  This is easy to provide by growing it next to something taller.  

I often grow it in a container with no drainage holes, I have soil or leaf litter in the bottom, and a few cm of water on top of the soil.  I have grown it in a pot of soil, where it does well.  I have also seen people grow this in their vegetable garden.

I have always been told that this plant will not flower outside the tropics, but that is not true.

I first got Vietnamese coriander when I lived in semi-arid central west NSW, and it flowered there.  Now that I live near Canberra with its hot dry summers and cold winters (cold by Australian standards) it still flowers.  Most years I don't get many flowers from this plant.

This past year the weather was odd, it was mild and wet all summer.  My Vietnamese coriander flowered more than it ever has before!

Vietnamese coriander flowers

The flowers appear at the end of the growing stalks.  Many flowers are on each stem, they open sequentially from the base up to the tip.  The flowers don't really smell, or if they do I could not smell them over the foliage.  Flowers last a few days before dropping off.

Unlike many other herbs, the leaves do not appear to turn bitter or have any off flavours when flowering.  I haven't tried eating the flowers so don't know what they taste like.

Vietnamese coriander flowering

I have never seen any seed set.  I m not sure if it needs another clone to be able to cross pollinate, or if it in unable to set seed, or if my climate is all wrong for seed production, or if we do not have the right pollinators, or if there is some other issue at play.

I have had this plant for many years now, it grows so easily from cuttings.  Vietnamese coriander always grows prolifically for me, and produces many large leaves.  As such I don't need any true seed to be formed.

For me these grow best in spring, summer, and autumn.  My plants don't love frost, and growth slows during cold weather.  

I am growing some outside where it gets lighter frosts, these plants have reddish leaves over winter that are small, bitter, and not really worth eating until the warmer weather returns.  Once the weather warms they grow greener leaves that have no bitterness.

I grow some in my unheated greenhouse, the leaves of these are green and lush all winter and all year.   At this time of year they lose the arrow shaped markings on their leaves as the sun is not strong enough.  That doesn't bother me, they still taste great.

I also have some growing outside in my goldfish barrelponics, this is lush productive all year long.  The ones in the barrelponics has by far the most explosive growth and is not even slightly bothered by winter as the barrel water must keep it slightly warmer.  Over summer it can suffer slightly from direct sun, but there is always some that gets enough shade that it is still fast growing and great to eat.  Between this and water cress the goldfish water stays clear and clean.

If you don't grow Vietnamese coriander you should.  Sometimes plant nurseries carry them, but it seems to be a bit hit and miss.  I also sell organically grown plants of these through my for sale page.  

Venus Flytrap variety comparisons

Venus flytrap is a single species (Dionaea muscipula) that can not hybridise with anything else other than venus flytraps.  All of the venus flytraps we grow are pure Dionaea muscipula.  That being said, there are numerous venus flytrap cultivars.   

Most (if not all) venus flytrap varieties will not grow true to type even if self pollinated.  Every seed you grow will end up as a unique plant.

Some Venus flytrap varieties have upright growth over summer, some have low growth all the time, some are completely green, others are red, others have coral coloured traps, some are tiny plants, others grow impressively large, some have weird traps, some divide like mad, etc.  This diversity has come about mostly by conventional breeding and a few have arisen from mishaps in tissue culture.  

There are no blue venus flytraps, and there are no black venus flytraps.  

Growing venus flytraps from seed is not for beginners, you are far better off getting a mature plant rather than growing out a seed for 4 or so years.

I grow a few varieties of venus flytraps.  I have written a few blog posts on individual varieties:

Venus Flytrap 'Low Giant'

Venus Flytrap 'Wally'

Venus Flytrap 'Big Vigorous'

 Venus Flytrap 'DXCL'

Venus Flytrap 'Schuppensteil'

While describing a variety is good, I thought it would also be useful to do a side by side comparison of different varieties.  This is only in my garden in my conditions, and may be different if you did these comparisons in different climates.  While some Venus Fly Trap varieties may thrive in my climate, they may struggle elsewhere.

I have used 'Wally' Venus Flytrap as the standard to compare everything against.  Wally is such a great clone and I have good numbers of them so they made an obvious choice for me to use as the standard to compare everything against. 

Wally vs Low Giant Venus Flytraps 

Wally Venus Flytrap and Low Giant Venus Flytrap are both low growing clones that tend to clump.  Both are hardy, simple to grow, and not too finicky about growing conditions.

These two were both similar sized divisions taken from large healthy plants.  They were potted in the same media, on the same day, in the same size/type of pot, and grown in the same tray of water side by side.

Wally on the left has clumped and produced  more divisions than Low Giant on the right.  The traps of Wally are larger, it has produced far more leaves, and the plant has more colour overall.  The colour of Wally vft tends to be red/purple and starts in the trap interior but can be over the entire plant.  

Low Giant has produced smaller traps, fewer traps, has less colour overall, is a noticeably less vigorous plant, and is more of a red colour in the trap interior.  

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left vs Low Giant VFT on right

Wally vs Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps

Wally Venus Flytrap is a low growing clumper, Big Vigorous Venus Flytrap has upright summer growth and tends to divide less frequently.

These two plants were both similar sized divisions (both larger than the ones above) taken from mature and healthy plants.  They were potted in the same media, on the same day, in the same size/type of pot, and grown in the same tray of water side by side.

Wally has low summer growth with large traps that are significantly smaller than the traps of Big Vigorous.  The trap colour of Wally is much redder.  Wally has divided into many new plants meaning that there are plenty of open traps in the clump.

Big Vigorous Venus Flytrap has very tall upright growth with very large traps.  The trap colour of Big Vigorous is more of a coral colour.  Big Vigorous has only divided into a few plants but still has a decent number of open traps making it an impressive looking plant.

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left,  Big Vigorous VFT on right

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left,  Big Vigorous VFT on right

'Wally' Venus Flytrap

'Big Vigorous' Venus Flytrap

Wally vs Upright Red Traps (possibly schuppenstiel) Venus Flytraps

I got some unnamed venus flytraps, one of them impressed me and I kept it and because I can't be certain of the variety I call it 'upright red traps'.  Mature plants develop leaf scaling during summer and I think it may be Schuppensteil, but I am not certain.  Wally is a low growing clumper, while Upright Red Traps has upright summer growth.

The plants below were similar sized division, planted in the same size/type of pot of the same media on the same day.  They were grown side by side in the same tray of water.  I only planted one division of Wally on the left, and multiple divisions of Upright Red Traps on the right.

Wally had more colour, both in the traps as well as on the leaf petioles.  Wally produced more leaves and more traps on the plant.  You can't see in this photo but Wally also produced a few smaller divisions.

Upright red traps produced taller upright growth over summer, and basically disappears over winter.  The traps get very red in the interiors and green everywhere else.  The scaling on the petioles only shows up in larger plants over summer so is not seen on any of these smaller plants.  You can't see in this photo but none of these plants produced any divisions.

Wally vs DCXL Venus flytraps

Wally is a low growing clumping venus flytrap with large colourful traps.  DCXL venus flytrap has tall upright growth, very large traps, and makes an imposing looking plant.

The below comparison isn't great, but it is the best I can do this year.  I got DCXL as a small plant and over the growing season it has not yet reached its potential in terms of upright growth.  It is growing in a different sized pot and in different media than Wally vft.  They were growing in the same tray of water next to one another, other than that pretty much everything was different.  This is the best comparison I can do of these two varieties this year, next year I should have some smaller divisions (grown from a flower stem cutting) to grow in the same way to provide a better comparison.  The differences between the tiny flower stalk plants of these varieties is pretty incredible.

Wally has divided a lot, stayed low to the ground, and has lots of colour in the traps.  DCXL has very large traps, has divided a little, put on a little upright growth (but nowhere near its potential), and has less colour in its large traps.  I expect DCXL to be a lot taller next summer and produce even larger traps.  DCXL is a big, beefy, impressive looking plant.

DCXL Venus Flytrap 

Venus Flytrap DCXL - a large robust carnivorous plant

Wally Venus Flytrap

Wally Venus Flytrap

I have also written a few other blog posts on Venus Flytraps and how I grow them.  If they are useful, links to these are as follows:

• VFT growth rate over a year
  
  
• VFT Winter Dormancy
  
  
• VFT - how I grow them 
  
  
• VFT Seedlings

Venus flytraps handle being posted bare rooted really well.  I sell extra plants over the warmer months, some named varieties as well as unnamed typical plants.  I am more than happy to consider a trade rather than selling if you have another variety or another carnivorous plant that I am after.  

If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page along with other carnivorous plants I have for sale.  

Utricularia sandersonii - rabbit ear bladderwort

Years ago when I first started to grow carnivorous plants I heard about Utricularia, the bladderworts.  

Bladderworts are a genus of carnivorous plants that can be roughly broken into two groups, aquatic bladderworts (which live in water), and terrestrial bladderworts (which live on land).  There are also epiphytic ones, and semi aquatic ones that live in the riparian zone, some aquatic ones that are free floating, and other aquatic ones that need to be anchored to the sediment, but to keep thinks simple I try to think of two groups.

The traps of Utricularia are the most fascinating and complex of all carnivorous plants.  They are more intricate and faster moving than Venus Flytraps.  Ironically the traps are on their roots (technically stems) so you tend not to see them work or to be able to feed them easily as they are under the soil level.  You can watch the traps of the aquatic ones, and some of the larger trapped aquatic ones make a popping noise if you lift them out of water, but watching the traps of terrestrial ones is a little more difficult.  Terrestrial Utricularia also tend to have rather tiny traps, which makes them even harder to watch. 

When I first growing carnivorous plants I had a book on carnivorous plants with a description of Utricularia sandersonii accompanied by one out of focus photo.  The description said words to the effect of: "the simplest to grow and most beautiful of terrestrial Utricularia".  I had never grown any Utricularia at that time so the next time I was ordering carnivorous plants I included one of these.

Utricularia sandersonii typical flowers

My plant arrived in the post, and was a small 2cm cube of peatmoss with a few tiny green leaves.  I planted it and waited.  It didn't take too long before my little pot was brimming with flowers.  This truly was an easy to grow carnivorous plant, and it had unique little flowers that I liked.

I grew this for years, and loved it.  Now that I am growing more carnivorous plants again I looked around for anyone selling Utricularia sandersonii.  Strangely enough nowhere listed it for sale.  

I find this odd because this is incredibly simple to grow, it is not weedy, it flowers freely for most of the year, and it looks nice.

Small Utricularia sandersonii flowering

I kept looking and eventually found someone with a plant that was willing to send me a piece.  This person sent me a part that was already flowering.  Over the next few weeks it grew a few leaves and more and more flowers.

The white flowers have distinct 'rabbit ears', and my daughters say the flowers look a little like ballerinas or princess dresses.  I think this plant is lovely, and my daughters really love it.

Rabbit ear bladderwort growing near sundews

I find that Utricularia sandersonii does not like frost, nor does it like to freeze solid.  It is pretty hardy though, and tends to survive winters if given a little protection.

I grow them in either pure peatmoss, or peatmoss mixed with sand.  I grow them in a pot that is standing in a few cm of water.  I grow most of my carnivorous plants with the tray method like this, so I can either grow this in a pot with a larger species, or can grow it in a pot beside other carnivorous plants.  They like to be occasionally flooded, and seem to eat all kinds of tiny soil microbiota.

They seem to flower for most of the year, only having a break when it is really hot or really cold.  Most years they will flower continuously as long as they don't get too crowded.

As long as water is covering the drainage holes they seem to thrive.  I have also seen these grow happily in a mug or tea cup with no drainage holes.  They can look really pretty growing in the right mug.

I tend to give them dappled shade, but am told that they can withstand full sun.  I hope to divide my plant in spring and grow some in different locations to see what they can tolerate.  These are simple to divide, just pull off a little part, plant it, and it will grow.  I find they do best if they have roots, but if they do not have roots they still grow, it just takes them a little longer to get started.

These tend to spread underground and pop up new leaves here and there over their pot, as well as popping out of the drainage hole.  Once they fill a pot they don't flower too well, and it is time to divide the plant.  Simple.

Bladderwort still flowering

Dividing these is simple, either carefully dig out a part, or just tear a piece off, and plant it.  If you put a few small pieces in a pot they seem to grow larger pretty fast.  I don't know the best way to do this, but I just use tweezers.  Give them lots of water and they are good to go.

From what I have seen, this species does not set seed.  Or at least it does not set seed under my conditions.  Perhaps it needs certain temperature, or lighting, a certain pollinator, or even two clones to produce viable seed.  

It grows so simply that a lack of seed is not an issue.  Not producing seed may even be a good thing, as it prevents this species from being a weed throughout my carnivorous plant collection.

The leaves of this plant are small, green, and unimpressive.  Unless they are flowering they are really not much to look at.  Luckily they flower for most months of the year.

My plant is still small, but it is pumping out flowers.  Seeing a more mature clump in full bloom is really impressive.  I can hardly wait for my plant to fill out a bit more.

Utricularia sandersonii and sundews

To the best of my knowledge there are two clones in Australia.  The typical one which I have, and a 'blue' flowered clone.  

The 'blue' one looks much the same as the typical one, except the ears are shorter and the flower is wider.  The photos I have seen don't look all that blue.  I am told that the blue clone can be reluctant to flower under less than ideal conditions.  I have never grown it, or seen it in real life, so can't really comment.

My typical clone flowers like mad, and does not stop just because the conditions are less than ideal, so I am more than happy with it.  It slows down flowering over winter, but that is ok.  I am really glad that I was able to track down this species again.

My plant is still flowering in winter, and is slowly growing and filling out its pot.  In spring if I have any extra plant I will offer them through my for sale page.  They handle postage really well 'bare rooted' (with minimal peatmoss).  I may also be keen to swap for other carnivorous plants if you have anything that I am after. 

Black Nebula Purple Carrots

I have never been overly good at growing carrots (Daucus carota sativus).  For me they always take a long time to produce decent sized roots, they take up a lot of room for the small crop I normally get, and I am not all that fond of them.  I don't really like raw carrots, but I do like them roasted. 

Years ago I grew mixed colours of carrots.  I liked the yellow ones and found them to be sweeter than orange.  I found white to be bland.  There were some purple skinned ones with orange cores, they were a little more spicey and also quite nice.  

Black nebula carrots

Organic Black Nebula Carrots

I considered trying to breed carrots that were purple the whole way through.  I started this project but didn't make much headway due to competing priorities.

This year I grew "Black Nebula Carrots".  I had read about these and seen a few pictures, but nothing compared to what these beauties did in my garden.  These carrots were purple from the skin right to the core.  

These carrots are the darkest of the dark.  They are so dark I would almost call them black.  They really are incredible to see.

Black Nebula Carrot can have a slightly white core

Purple carrots staining the cutting board

The intense purple colour of black nebula carrots comes from anthocyanins.  Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants that are found in things like blackberries and blueberries.  Given how dark these carrots are, they extremely rich in antioxidants and are incredibly healthy to eat, far healthier than regular orange carrots.  If you are growing food at home, you may as well grow something that is healthier than you can get from the markets!

All of the carrots I grew have some amount of white, I believe this is largely influenced by environmental factors.  Other than a small amount of white they have dark purple skin and flesh.  The leaves are green and usually have purple leaf stalks.

I found mine did not produce overly long roots, but that may have been the growing conditions.   I won't ever give them perfect growing conditions, so I assume this is how they will always grow for me.  The roots were fat at the top and got skinny pretty quickly lower down.  

The tap root had a lot of tiny side roots, making them appear a little hairy.  This 'hair' looked weird but came off easily just by washing the dirt off the main tap root.

Black carrots cut and ready for roasting

Organic black nebula carrots

I grow everything organically and found black nebula carrots grew easily with no real effort.  We had no pests or diseases in my little patch.  They grew like any other carrot, which I find to be a bit slow but really isn't too bad in the scheme of things.  They weren't overly fussed by much of anything.  

Some of my carrots got a bit dry over summer, then the rains came and made them split a little.  They didn't split too much, so it didn't bother me.  This happens with many crops and was not unexpected given the amount of rain we had.

These dark purple carrots are an heirloom variety that breed true to type, so buying seed once and then saving seed for future crops is the best way to grow them.  Carrots tend to produce enormous amounts of seed, and carrot tops can be replanted and allowed to flower, so it won't take long to select for the best performers in my garden.  The flowers were white and slightly purple, and fed a lot of beneficial insect pollinators.

Black nebula carrots are dark purple

Black Nebula carrots with potatoes

I am told that these have undertones of berry taste.  I can't taste berries at all.  I found them to taste like a mix of carrot and beetroot, I really liked it.  I don't like the taste of raw orange carrot, but I did like the taste of raw black nebula carrots.  Roasted they tasted like roast carrot mixed with roast beetroot.

When we cut the carrots they stained things with their incredible purple juice.  I am told that the juice can be used as a dye, and if you add some acidity that it will turn bright pink.  I will have to try this out one day and see for myself!

These carrots hold their intense colour when cooked.  We roasted the carrots, the roots turned an even darker black.  They looked burned to a crisp as they were coal black, yet they were tender and delicious.  They also stained potatoes that they were touching in the baking tray, making them interestingly purple too.  What fun!

I have seen pictures of carrot juice made from black nebula carrots, and I have seen pictures of carrot cakes made with them.  They look incredible.  I am not a fan of carrot juice but will have to try to make the carrot cake one day as it is crazy dark purple.

Black nebula carrots are the darkest

These black carrots are so high in antioxidants that my son ended up with black lips, teeth, and tongue, much like if he is eating mulberries.  I put them on a white plate which was also stained with a purple berry like stain, again much like mulberries.  Unlike a mulberry, the staining washed off easily.  

I am planting all of the tops from the better carrots in order to let them regrow a little and collect some seed from them.  While I don't expect them to grow another tap root, they can and should flowers and produce seed from a regrown carrot top.  I have planted them in my greenhouse to ensure purity of seed as I assume people in the area may also grow carrots and I do not want cross pollination.  

If I have some spare seed I plan to list it through my for sale page along with various other heirloom vegetable seeds, perennial vegetables, and interesting culinary herbs.  If you are interested please take a look.

Praying mantis

I like praying mantis, they are formidable predators killing and eating many pest insects in my vegetable garden.  They are also fascinating to watch.

I don't use any sprays, not even the certified organic ones, so I largely rely on predators to keep pest numbers low.  This is Integrated Pest Management, it is far safer than using certified organic poisons.

In autumn we saw a few different species of praying mantis.  Each species has a different preferred food, so I am happy to see their diversity as it means that more pests are being eaten.

Praying mantis eating a harlequin bug

A different species hatched on my deck.  There were a lot of baby mantids.  

Baby praying mantis 

Sadly they began to cannibalised each other, so we gently moved some to the garden where they would have shelter and be able to hunt for food. 

While autumn isn't really the time of year I would expect to see them hatch, I'm sure they know what they are doing.  Other than moving some off the deck into the garden I leave them to do their thing.

Hopefully some survive winter and help to keep pests under control in spring.