‘Code Red’ (Terry Aitken 2003, TB) ‘Hearts Afire’ (Terry Aitken 2017, TB)
slightly different tack on the search for “red” with a focus
on the beards. Surely a red beard would be an indicator
that red pigment would be there somewhere.
During the 1980s, George, Bennett, and I all
discovered a “color break” in our seedling fields. They
were all muddy colors with poor form—but color breaks!
George and Bennett discarded theirs. Mine occurred in
a block of exceptionally good orange BB seedlings, one
of which eventually was named ‘Maid Of Orange’ (Aitken
1989) AM 1994. The “ugly sport” was so ugly, it took me
three years to work up the nerve to set pollen on it.
Finally, in desperation, I selected a TB seedling (Gyro x
Spartan), which was a reddish/purple. The product of
that cross was the BB ‘Cranapple’ (Aitken 1997) . It had
all of the virtues that its parents didn’t have. It is still
well-known and widely grown both in the U. S. and Great
Britain. For 20 years, I have crossed on to ‘Cranapple’
with only one seed to show for it! That seedling failed. (If
the “time lines” seem strange, it is because I frequently
keep seedlings up to ten years in my reselect seedling
field before they ever get registered.)
Meanwhile, on another front, Carol Lankow was
working for red in the SDB class. When she died, I was
the beneficiary of approximately 1,000 of her seeds and
seedlings. Much of this stock was for red SDBs. ‘Jeweler’s
Art’ (Lankow 1993) AM 1997 was the final selection, an
outstanding red color to this day. What remains to be
Terry Aitken TB Seedling A#14T22
done is a cross of ‘Cranapple’ on to ‘Jeweler’s Art’. (I
ignore chromosome counts because I frequently have
success where I have been told that I shouldn’t.)
Searching for “reddish” TB breeding material, I
found ‘Lady Friend’ (Ghio 1980) AM 1985 to be a likely
candidate among the TB plants. Much line breeding
followed. Several generations later, we selected ‘Code
Spring 2018 AIS Bulletin 31