Shirl's Pearl Pink - A great tribute to a great lady!

Shirl's Pearl Pink is one of the last varieties Shirley Sanders hybridized before her passing.  In fact, the seed pod that contained this gem had not been sown prior to her passing and was given to Steve Spachek by Shirley's husband Sandy.

Steve took great care with these final seed pods and made several seedlings available to a few of us at the Texas State Convention in 2009.

While you might look at this plant and remark, "Nice show plant", it's not a show plant at all.  It's one of my stock plants that I have growing and I just happened to notice the remarkable display it was putting on this past weekend.  No, I didn't groom it...disbud it...nothing.  It just did this with no persuasion on my part.

Try growing this variety for yourself.  I'm sure you'll enjoy growing it as much as I do.

 

Rainbow's Peewee Nocturne

It's funny how some varieties just seem to hang around my collection and Rainbow's Peewee Nocturne is one of those that continues to hang out.

I originally got this plant from Patricia Champagne (Hortense Pittman's hybrid, Pat Champagne is named after her) who always seemed to find little gems to grow for show.  Pardon my picture taking abilities...the year was probably 1987 and digital cameras didn't exist yet.  Fortunately, I took a lot of slides back then which seemed to hold up better than standard prints.

I do offer this variety for sale on eBay from time to time.  But you've just got to keep your eyes peeled!