Summer Skies

First bloom today.Looks similar to heavenly blue mg.I planted these with the carmen mg.
Iwish,that I would of planted separate. Running out of trelliss space.

Skimper - Nice bloom...

The seeds currently being sourced via e-bay as 'summer skies' were the result of a light blue Heavenly Blue that appeared in a growout by QueenB(Stacey) as shown in the PlantFile entry here
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/59069/

Stacey showed me the blooms and asked for an assessment and I shared with her from my experience of growing "Summer Skies" for about 7 years and I relayed to Stacey that although she did have a very nice light Heavenly Blue it did not have the quasi-'transparent' blue of the Summer Skies...

The Sumer Skies that I grew and obtained from Redwood City Seed Co in 1972 was a light beige seed and had the lighter almost transparent blue of the "Blue Star" ( but without the gene for spotting which causes the darker star pattern along the mid-petaline primary folds)...the lighter almost transparent blue is best shown in the following PlantFile entries here
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/9559/
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/50637/
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/139409/

The Summer Skies that I grew never looked just like a 'paler' Heavenly Blue

Stacey traded some of her light blue "Heavenly Blue" to a person in NC and Stacey and I both joked via d'mail how some people would probably try to pass it off as a re-discovered 'summer skies'...


Summer Skies and the re-discoved 'summer skies was addressed previously in the threads here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=1768429
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=1846921
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=2682011
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=1968676

Very(!) dark Heavenly Blue...note the amount of dark pigmentation on the pedicels...
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/85926/
darker pigmentation on the stems correlates with darker flowers in this group...

Relatively dark Heavely Blue
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/20964/

Heavenly Blue in the lighter earlier softer color
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/14012/

Stacey comparing her very light Heavenly Blue (>the inadvertent origin of the pseudo-summer skies) to a 'dark' Heavenly Blue
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/59069/

There was a time that when a company advertised HB as Clarkes it could be relied upon to be the older antique baby powder blue but jobbers,vendors and other outlets can no longer be relied upon to reliably supply the good old standard...

It would be interesting to try multiple crossings of the very light Heavenly Blue being offered as SummerSkies and cross it to a light seeded Blue Star ...the results may yield something as close to the real SummerSkies as we are going to get...


Hope that helps...

TTY,...

Ron


This message was edited Sep 12, 2007 3:53 AM

If it isn't the historical "Summer Skies", we should make up a new name for it. Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could call it "Heavenly Skies".

That sounds nicer than Dilute Heavenly Blue.

That is where I obtained my seeds from on Ebay.From Cary,NC.
How can people sale seeds that are not what they claim to be?
What I purchased wasn't a true Summer skies MG.
I can go to walmart,and purchase the regular heavenly blues.
This is so sad.
Thanks!

I have some of these.
Emma and I agreed at some point to refer to this strain as "Light Heavenly Blue"

The mg is pretty!.It is now Light heavenly blue.

skimper, your flower is georgeous.

What about Heavenly Enlightened Blue ? :) be proud!

The bloom was so pretty!this morning.

You can't give Ipomoea tricolor a NEW name. . .
This isn't a new cultivar.

Emma

The "Summer Skies" is also a light "Heavenly Blue" but just lighter than the Light Heavenly Blue. The blue tri colors come in a variety of shades of blue and that is a fact indisputable and scientific.

The names are simply what people enjoy fighting over...the flowers are the innocent victims imho.

'Summer Skies' Is NOT a Light 'Heavenly Blue' even though 'Heavenly Blue' DOES come in different 'shades', however, NOT the Light Blue as 'Summer Skies' WAS. 'Summer Skies' is more similar to 'Blue Star' with that exact shade of Blue which is not seen in 'Heavenly Blue'. Actually 'Summer Skies' didn't have the *Star* pattern in the blooms as 'Blue Star' does.

There is only 6 cultivars of Ipomoea tricolor:
Heavenly Blue
Blue Star
Pearly Gates
Flying Saucers
Wedding Bells
and the still lost 'Summer Skies'

Another fact about the Morning Glory that has a 'very light shade of Blue' grown by 'skimper' is that it came from Dark Seeds. 'Summer Skies' has Light Beige Seeds.

This is actually a moot issue.

Emma

The flower is pretty! I like the light blue color.I appreciate all the information on the m.glories.

You are welcome, Karla. . .

Hope this helps.

Very pretty bloom!

Emma

I stand corrected that summer skies was one that looked like blue star with the star missing and had tan seeds and this light blue one is being mistaken for an older cultivar.

I doubt they want to pass it off as something it isn`t unless they are advertising a twenty year old picture of the real thing. If your flower looks like the picture in the ad then you can ignore the wrong name and enjoy your flowers. You can try writing them and explaining what summer skies used to be and what this really is but that is all you could do.

My reason for posting here was that I wanted to encourage scimper that this flower shown in the picture was very pretty.

Yes, Karla - PLEASE don't pass your seeds off as 'Summer Skies'.
The seller on eBay DID know that he was marketing seeds that were not in fact 'Summer Skies', yet that was his choice, which only adds to confusion and not educating people on eBay accurately.

Emma

Emma:He was wrong totally.He misrepresented the seeds he was selling to members of the Ebay community.I won"t buy from this guy anymore. The flower is pretty!
Thanks!

Yes, Karla - I totally agree with you.
So be it!
Even seed catalog sites mis-represent their seeds and they don't care either. I've only had success ONE TIME writing seed catalog companies telling them they had certain seeds listed incorrectly, that company DID care and made their corrections.

In my opinion, it is just as easy to list the seeds accurately.

Emma

Your correct Emma.I agree totally!

So 'Summer Skies' comes from beige seeds? Is it a mutation of heavenly blue?

Ronnie,
Yes, 'Summer Skies' has the lighter seeds.

Ron will have to answer it it is a mutation of 'Heavenly Blue', but I would think a mutation of 'Blue Star', but let Ron confirm that one.

Emma

Thanks Emma. My neighbor had a few strange blooms on her heavenly blue last year and I am growing a few so I was just wondering...

Ronnie,

'Someday', 'Someone' is going to get the REAL 'Summer Skies' again. But, I'm thinking it will more likely come from 'Blue Star'. 'Blue Star' has always been one of my very favorite Morning Glories.

SO, WE ALL NEED TO GROW OUT LOTS & LOTS OF 'Blue Star' SEEDS *-*

Emma

OOH I will look and see if I have any Blue Star!! I do like that one too and never grew it!! LOL... Are the seeds for BS beige also!

I have some old Blue Star seeds, early 90's I think. Might start one or two.
Would be so exciting if it produced a Summer Skies flower. Will try to
start more of them next spring. Ronnie, will take me forever to find my pkt
but I'm thinking they might be a light colored seed. Emma can verify.

Jackie

Karla`s flower doesn`t have a star I can see in the picture. If you want to get rid of the star from the well established Blue Star that may or not be possible depending on what is there in the genes.

Karla`s flower is different from the Heavenly blues I have seen that are blue And have the star as well because I don`t see the star marking in this flower.

If the genes for the star are dominant and have no recessive factors to surface then it will remain blue star generation after generation unchanged.

If there is a recessive hidden trait for not having the star then it could show up and I think if it was there then it wouldn`t take long for it to surface.

One suggestion would be is to crossbreed the Blue Star with Karla`s solid without a star light color Heavenly Blue and maybe work on growing and selecting from there.

As far as seed colors I imagine you could select seeds for colors too.

Here is a picture of the Blue Star I grew this year.

Here is another picture in the plant files of a Heavenly blue with no star that could be crossed with blue star to get rid of the blue star. Actually this cross would give you a clue as far as if the blue star trait was dominant or recessive in the first place.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/8854/



This message was edited Aug 4, 2007 2:24 PM

Karen, that's pretty.

I like it.Very!pretty!

Karla's Bloom does have the *Star* Pattern.
Here is cropped photo

Emma

The folds are there casting a shadow but that flower looks solid light blue.

If it has a darker colored star then it will not be useful helping you with any breeding program that would produce solid flowers with no star. Maybe Pearly Gates would do it. I know that one is solid white and does not have a blue star on it. It doesn`t hurt to try different things. Anyways, those were some helpful suggestions you can take or leave and good luck.

Maybe that is what you see. But I see a Star Pattern that IS there

Ronnie,

Totally overlooked answering your question.
Yes, Blue Star does have light tan seeds.

Emma

Blue Star and Flying Saucers have both light and dark seeded forms,although as previously mentioned the light seeded forms produce little if any coloration on the stems whereas the dark seeded forms do produce a rosy pigmentation on the stems...generally it is the case that dark seeds have a higher ratio of darkly colored flowers than light seeds...but there are exceptions...
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=1625123
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=1763979
Heavenly Blue was crossed with Pearly Gates by the person in the UK who offered the offspring as 'summer skies' but they reverted
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=1846921

"The person in the UK known as MrMGMAN had tried to re-create Summer Skies from his own personal crossings of different Ipomoea tricolor cultivars,but his plants did not breed true and the people who traded for Summer Skies from him did not receive real Summer Skies,the plants quickly reverted to Heavenly Blue and that is that..."

Photo entered in the PlantFiles that is seriously unlikely to be Ipomoea tricolor
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/344255/


I support all attempts at producing any interesting variations in MG's...

TTY,...

Ron

Ron . . .

Thanks for the great additional information.

Emma

A crossed flower will revert if the breeder does not keep and select through the required generations to fix it in type. A first cross will never throw all the same in the F2 especially if the parents are very different . You will get a hodge podge of variations. So these seeds being sold as supposedly being the first cross is jumping the gun. You must go through a process of selection and more growing to fix the characteristics. This is not a easy task because tri colors are huge plants and lots of space would be required not to mention the patience of Job. Most people will not pay attention and natural selection will take over.

I disagree because of all of the blooms that I have gotten

It is ok to disagree. We can disagree and that is ok. But I wouldn`t give up too easy. You literally have to keep on keeping on trying or you will give up too soon. Trust me on that. :)

I never give up

Thanks!for all the information.This is interesting.i have both seeds of flying saucers in dark and light tannish colored seeds.Why are the seeds different in colors?Would the dark seeds produce dark flowers?The light seed produce light colored flowers?

Hey Karla. . .

Above in Post Post #3819263
is where Ron explained about what the different seed colors will produce.
I too have both colors of seeds and haven't yet grown them out.

Emma