PDT - a new breeding trend in trumpet lilies?     PDT history     Frilled history

Holger Kuehne Lilien-Info 3 - 2020, added January 2024

 With a headline like this, some lily lovers are surely wondering what this is supposed to be? It is simply my short name for new breeding in division 6.

Besides Orange Evina, which appeared as a mutation of Evina in the propagation of Stefan Dolinay/Slovakia in 2010 with normal scaling, rarely anything appears as really new in hobby lily breeding. Yet the possibilities of new interesting combinations are huge. Color variations are considered by breeders as well as inflorescences and garden suitability. There are also other characteristics to consider such as fragrance and flower shape.

 Let's take the shape of the flowers. With trumpets, attention is usually paid to a beautifully uniform and open flower in the desired clear color. The earlier narrow elongated trumpet flowers have probably disappeared by now. Likewise, there has been no real progress in wavy flower edges.

 Deviations from these shapes, however, can produce beautiful cultivars. I experienced this during my first visit to Anton Mego's garden in 2006, when he presented for the first time his "double trumpet lily" AM 01-1087-1, for my eyes a really new beauty, just a special lily in this group. I could not agree with the term of a "double" trumpet, because only the inner petals were turned in, giving the appearance of a double flower. I refer to it as a "pseudo double trumpet", or "pdt" for short. So this first very good plant as "pdt 1".

Of course I was interested in the parentage, how did he get such a flower? Starting point were crosses with Astra and Belleblond x Longida. The second one visually showed no Longida influence, so may have been a pure trumpet, or the Longida characteristics do not show visually in the seedling, which we also know from some other crosses not believed earlier. Astra shows an important characteristic for this form, a tendency to have curled petals.  Another characteristic, in my opinion, seems to be wavy petal edges, as we see in some seedlings of trumpets.  In addition, notches in the petal edges also appear to be typical of this new flower form.  Where this feature comes from I cannot trace. Thus, in my opinion, these are the three essential factors for such a flower, although the expression is certainly influenced by accompanying genes, which for me are not recognizable in their influence and I only hope for a good combination. Besides, there will be other factors to consider in breeding, such as inflorescence, flower size, color, bulb division and growth in different soils, just to name a few.

I was able to cross with this "pdt 1" and siblings as well as my trumpets and also crossed seedlings with each other, the goal was to get other colors in the pdt hybrids as well. After the bar frost in 2012 did not let many of my breeding survive, I can probably say something about the genetics of this form with the remaining material and later crosses.

All three factors mentioned above must be present in a balanced form with relevant expression genes for an appealing flowering, and this is rarely to be expected with seedlings, more must grow up and be selected.

Some examples from my yellow seedlings can probably show this:

 A - partially curled and turned in, missing only notched.

B - twisted and partially frilled, missing only notched

C - indented, little indented and little wavy

D - not beautiful, but all three features combined in low expression

E - extremely indented and frilled

 In addition to these really unattractive forms, there is always a proportion of seedlings with normal flowers or only slight signs of the breeding direction.

 With the white seedlings I am already a little bit further. After seedling picture F did not convince me yet, in the next generation a seedling with better form appeared and it runs under "pdt 2". The three factors result in their expression with the inner petals a balanced form for me, only somewhat broader petals and secondary flowers should complement it. Besides, the inflorescence is more racemose and thus away from the ring of Lilium regale hybrids. Huge inflorescences I do not expect, because the bulbs probably divide annually, but some lily lovers like this. With 150 cm height and stable stem, the typical scent of the trumpets and a novel flower form, this can probably be an enrichment for many a lily bed. At least this new form is already attracting attention among lily enthusiasts, but Apricot Fudge also has followers.

 I would like to take this opportunity to thank Anton Mego. He started this new breeding direction and gave me the unique opportunity to breed with these lilies. How difficult it is to grow this demanding form is also shown by his later seedlings (pictures G,H,I). In picture H the papillae from Lilium henryi are also influenced.

 Also we find in Lilium henryi hybrids with its cultivars as parents, that partly these characteristics appear individually. Ulrika Johansson showed pictures of her seedlings, and some remind me very much of the pdt hybrids...are the same genes the cause? (pictures J, K, L).

 By the way, all my diploid seeds of trumpet lilies in the seed lists of the ELG of the last years have parents from this breeding line. So also in these seedlings good looking combinations of genetic factors in this direction could appear or just hints of these forms in the ancestry, as in the pictures of my yellow seedlings. The next generation can then also bring unexpected seedlings. This only as a hint to the attention of "funny characteristics" and what can arise from it further.