In our early days of Clivia collecting we bought and imported some Chinese plants through eBay. In those days with the internet as unreliable as it was in South Africa, we rarely succeeded in winning lots as bidders from countries with faster services usually snatched up lots at the last second. This being the case we did not hold much hope of being successful in getting the plant when an offset of Summersong (an Anshan Blushed Yellow Daruma) was offered up for auction, but still, with such a beautiful and rare colour we could not resist and decided to put in a bid and let the cards fall where they may.
Much to our surprise and delight the morning after the auction there was an invoice from the seller confirming we had won the plant. We proceeded to do the payment and quickly arranged the necessary import permit as the plant had already been posted to us – a week later with the permit barely in place, the plant arrived without any problems or issues from customs. This was in 2009/10
The offset was potted up and in 2012 rewarded us with its first flower. Initial excitement turned to concern as the flower buds became a dark pink colour as they developed but this concern was quickly displaced when the first flower opened with a beautiful large cream throat and just a light blushing of pink on the inside tips of the petals.
Now the fun part started as we had no idea what would work with this plant. These were very new colour forms at that time and there was little to no information available about breeding with them. From the little information we were given at the time it was part of a group of blushed plants that came about from the original breeders attempts at breeding short compact yellows.
From further discussions with Eddie Pang we now know that Summer Song, Angel City, White Butterfly and a number of other Anshan blushed yellow Darumas were purchased in 2007/2008 by Mr Zhang Yang (a reseller), from various breeders in Anshan City in China and these were then sold on to various other breeders in China so unfortunately there is no specific information available on Summersongs original breeding.
With this first flower not knowing what would work with this plant I decided to try a selection of crosses. I selfed a couple of the flowers, I pollinated a few more with another new import we had flowering at the time – a very lightly blushed yellow from Mr Hattori in Japan, and then as a long-term project I pollinated one flower with Hirao with the intention of breeding a green throated blush in a second-generation breeding program, also at the same time testing if there were any Group 2 yellow genetics in it.
I then used Summersong pollen on a similar coloured large throated pink pastel we had called Pink Tourmaline as the colours looked the same. I also put some of its pollen on Emma Charlotte, a Charl Malan interspecific, we have that also has a very large throat with the idea of breeding a blushed compact interspecific and then to test if this plant had any group 1 yellow genetics in it, I put its’ pollen on a broad petalled Group 1 yellow.
Neither the Group 1 nor Group 2 crosses gave any unpigmented seedlings, but the numbers of seed were limited so it cannot be ruled out that it might contain some yellow genetics.
In 2018 we started flowering the first seedlings from these original breeding attempts. From the cross I did with Pink Tourmaline three out of the ten seedlings we planted flowered initially – one the most beautiful broad petalled pink blush with the palest green throat – extremely hard to capture on camera. Another a soft apricot colour and the third a “yellow” flower (this plant has a deeply pigmented base so I can only assume it is a poor blush with no colour showing and not a true yellow)
Of the Summersong x Hirao cross we only planted 5 seeds – I flowered one in 2018, a disappointing orange with no green in the throat so it was discarded. In 2020 another two flowered – one more orange and then one pink with a green throat. Totally unexpected but a pleasant surprise and one we will breed further with. I have also subsequently done the reverse of this cross to try and get stronger green into the first generation flowers.
The Summersong x Hattori Blush crosses flowered for us in 2019, of the ten we originally planted only seven survived and of those seven, four flowered with blush colouring and three were orange. From this limited result it seems like we also got about 50% blushes out of this Chinese Blush – Japanese Blush cross. It will be interesting to see if putting Chinese blush back on these blushed seedlings will result in a higher number of blushes in the next generation.
Of the selfed seeds we planted only one survived, but it also flowered in 2019 and turned out to be almost identical to its mother other than having some keeling on its petals.
The Emma Charlotte x Summersong cross only produced a few seeds of which one flowered in 2019 – a lovely versicolour interspecific with deep pink on the outside of the petals.
We must still flower the crosses using Summersong onto Group 1 yellow as well as crosses with other Chinese blush plants so in time these results should lend some more insight into breeding with this special plant.
I am often asked which “group” Summersong, and the Chinese blushes in general belong to and from the limited results we have had as well as some breeding results seen at other clivia breeders so far I am inclined to say that it does not belong to a group (at least not one we know of / have defined yet) and it is not a mutation as we know them, but more a distinct colour pattern that is being carried through.
So far it has produced pigmented seedlings with all the crosses tried, with mixed results in flower colour for all. From these results however, it does seem that Summersong has a very distinct large throated colour pattern in its genetics that comes through strongly in its seedlings resulting in a percentage of “blushed” flowers from various crosses using Summersong as berry or pollen parent. Unfortunately, the balance of the seedlings come through as orange in all the crosses, so this is not a completely dominant trait. This is the reason I am inclined to say this is not a mutation as all other mutations we know of so far are recessive and produce 100% orange seedlings when crossed with different mutations or oranges, whereas the Chinese blush seems to produce a percentage of blushed results in most crosses.
What I do find interesting with this colour type is the fact that the “blushed” flowers are all pink in colour – I have not seen any orange “blushed” flowers yet, which indicates that there is something more at work here than just pure colour pattern genetics coming through but something that affects the colour as well.
Obviously, at this stage, our results are based on limited quantities of seedlings. Also, these results are from one specific plant, Summersong, and may not hold true for all other Chinese Blushes, only time will tell. Some other breeders working with different Chinese blushes have reported similar findings in their breeding results. For now, the journey continues, and we look forward to the next generation of seedlings to flower from our breeding efforts with this beautiful plant.
