The Daphnis Hybrids

The BC1-Backcrosses

In 1949 Nassos Daphnis went to Paris and Florence for over two years to study. On his return he continued breeding peonies with two rare plants that had been bred at Gratwick Nursery which opened up new possibilities for further gorgeous creations:

Old Professor Saunders found two seeds in two carpels of his F1-hybrids, which he looked after till they germinated. This was a great success for him, since up to that time F1-hybrids had been sterile. With these two seedlings further breeding was now possible, for the F2 generation of peonies is fertile again.

Realising that his life was drawing towards its end and he could no longer use the potential that lay in those two seedlings, which he called Cross Nr. 12'788 (!) and Cross Nr. 16'718 (!), Professor Saunders gave them to Bill Gratwick. Gratwick and Daphnis renamed them F2A and F2B.

F2A-hybrid from Prof. Saunders Photo: Nassos Daphnis	F2B-Hybride from Prof. Saunders Photo: Nassos Daphnis

Nassos Daphnis recognized the breeding values of these plants and looked for good crossing possibilities. He saw that they were unsuitable as mother plants and examined their pollen and its fertility under the microscope. When it turned out to be fertile he looked for possible mother plants and found them in various F1 Lutea hybrids of Professor Saunders. The genetic distance of F2 pollen from the pure Paeonia lutea and the pure Moutan forms seemed to him to be too great.

Despite the protests of Bill Gratwick, who believed a crossing of F1-plants with the pollen of the F2 plants of Professor Saunders to be impossible, Nassos Daphnis began in 1953 with the first backcrossing of F2 pollen on the F1 plants. For this he used exclusively F1-hybrids of Professor Saunders as mother plants, and pollen of the above mentioned F2A (golden yellow with red basal flares) and F2B (purple red). At the first go he obtained 75 seeds and in the following years another 150 seeds. The BC1-crosses (Backcrosses 1) had a greater vitality and fertility than their parents. Their pollen could fertilize flowers of the pure Moutan as well as F1, F2 and BC1.

Of these BC1 the following seedlings were registered as named varieties:

'Aurora'

'Aurora' is a semi-double hybrid with three rows of petals with good substance and transparent quality. The flower is of a light yellow, then changes to off-white in the course of the flowering period and has red blotches at the base of the petals. Aurora was the Greek goddess of dawn. Photot: Nassos Daphnis

They were all terrified, except Arachne, and even she leaped to her feet, and a sudden flush swept over her unwilling checks, and receded again, just as the sky crimsons when Aurora first stirs, but in a little while shines white with the light of sunrise. Ovid; Metamorphosis 6, 45 - 49

Parents	'Wings of the Morning' (Lutea hybrid F1) x F2A
Number of seedling	D-98
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1952
Germination	1953
First Blooming	1962
Registration	1965
First grafted	1969
On the market since	1975

'Helios'

'Helios'. The double flowers shine especially in the morning light with a soft yellow. Three rows of petals form several circles in a perfect order. Helios was the Greek god of the sun. Photo: Nassos Daphnis

And then Hyperion's strong child, Helios, went down into the cup of solid gold, so that he might cross over Ocean and reach the depths of holy, dark night and his mother and wedded wife and dear children. Stesichoros, Fragment 185 PMG

Parents	'Golden Hind' (Lutea hybrid F1) x F2B
Number of seedling	D-123
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1955
Germination	1956
First Blooming	1962
Registration	1966
First grafted	1970
On the market since	1975

'Hephestos'

'Hephestos' flowers in the purest red. The petals are slightly frilled and dotted. The spectator feels the warmth and the fire glowing on the forge of Hephaistos, the Greek god of fire. The large flowers stand rigidly upright. Photo: Walter Good

Paeonia 'Hephestos', closed flower in the rain. Photo: Walter Good

So saying her he left her there and went unto his bellows, and he turned these toward the fire and bade them work. And the bellows, twenty in all, blew upon the melting-vats, sending forth a ready blast of every force, now to further him as he laboured hard, and again in whatsoever way Hephaestus might wish and his work go on. And on the fire he put stubborn bronze and tin and precious gold and silver; and thereafter he set on the anvil-block a great anvil, and took in one hand a massive hammer, and in the other took he the tongs. Homer, Iliad 18, 469 - 477

Parents	'Thunderbolt' (Lutea hybrid F1) x F2A
Number of seedling	D-240
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1958
Germination	1959
First Blooming	1968
Registration	1975
First grafted	1975
On the market since	1980

'Phaedra'

'Phaedra' is half-double with rounded, well-shaped petals. The flowers are red with a blue tinge and have dark blotches at the base which form a dark mysterious center. It bears the name of Theseus' unfortunate wife Phaedra. Photo: Nassos Daphnis

Some mention of Hippolytos may have come to your ears. I fancy, the prince who met his death through the trickery of his accursed stepmother, and his father's credulity? You will be surprised at what I say, and I shall find it difficult to prove, but none the less, I am that same Hippolytos. In days gone by Pasiphae's daughter Phaedra tried to persuade me to dishonour my father's bed. Finding her efforts vain, she then pretended that I lusted after what she in fact desired herself. Whether in fear, lest I inform against her, or annoyed at being rejected, she turned upon me the charge that she deserved, and had me condemned. Ovid Metamorphosis 15, 497 - 513

Parents	'Segovia' (Lutea hybrid F1) x F2B
Number of seedling	D-100
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1952
Germination	1953
First Blooming	1963
Registration	1966
First grafted	1970
On the market since	1975

'Terpsichore'

'Terpsichore' has single flowers with two rows of well-formed and round petals. The coral pink flowers are interlaced with red and orange veins and often have an apricot-colored tinge. The petals move in and out as though in a dance ritual. Terpsichore was the muse of chorale, dance and song. Photo: Nassos Daphnis

These things, then, the Muses sang who dwell on Olympos, nine daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia , and Urania and Calliope, who is the chiefest of them all. Hesiod, Theogonie 75 - 79

Parents	'Amber Moon' (Lutea hybrid F1) x F2A
Number of seedling	D-182
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1956
Germination	1957
First Blooming	1966
Registration	1970
First grafted	1974
On the market since	1980

'Urania'

'Urania' blooms golden yellow, single, with two rows of petals. Small red flares from the base of each petal. It looks like a bright star in the sky. Good substance, stamen and pollen. No seeds, fragrant, the amount of blooms varies. Good stem strength, height 120 cm, blooms in late May. Vigorous with light green foliage, reliable, one bud per stem. Urania is the muse of astronomy. Photo: Nassos Daphnis

These things, then, the Muses sang who dwell on Olympos, nine daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia , and Urania and Calliope, who is the chiefest of them all. Hesiod, Theogonie 75 - 79

Parents	'Golden Bowl' (Lutea hybrid F1) x 'Companion of Serenity' (Moutan)
Number of seedling	D-207
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1955
Germination	1956
First Blooming	1965
Registration	1995
First grafted	1995
Will be on the market in	2000

A very difficult crossing with a wonderful result

In a further step Nassos Daphnis tried reversing the crossing, i.e. pollinating a pure Moutan with F2 pollen, which was most difficult, because the F2 plants and the pure Moutan were genetically still very far apart. In spring 1959 he prepared 800 Moutan flowers and pollinated them with F2 pollen. The seeds should have been ripe in September, and the disappointment was great as the two friends walked from plant to plant and found only empty carpels. Then Bill Gratwick remembered a last pollinated flower in a forgotten corner of his nursery. There they found one only carpel with only one single seed, which later germinated. This seed was the origin of the famous 'Zephyrus'.

'Zephyrus'

'Zephyrus' has flowers in a wonderful lavender and mother-of-pearl tint; there are maroon blotches at the base. The flowers may be more or less double. The plant is named after Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind. Photo: Friedrich Hertle

'Zephyrus' blooms in different colours. This flower blooms more pink. Photo: Kathrin Furrer Good

... and men were content with foods that grew without cultivation. They gathered arbute berries and mountain strawberries, wild cherries and blackberries that cling to thorny bramble bushes: or acorns, fallen from Zeus' spreading oak. It was a season of everlasting spring, when peaceful zephyrs, with their warm breath, caressed the flowers that sprang up without having been planted. Ovid, Metamorphosis 1, 103 - 108

Parents	'Suiho-haku' (Moutan) x F2A
Number of seedling	D-204
Crossing	BC1
Year of crossing	1959
Germination	1960
First Blooming	1966
Registration	1970
First grafted	1975
On the market since	1980

The chance of getting one germinable seed with this cross was, as he later reckoned, 1 : 50000
(800 flowers x 4 to 5 carpels x 10 to 15 possible seed-embryos per carpel).

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