Black Hole Sun
Name: Black Hole Sun
Seedling Number: WTTVE16
Bloom Diameter: 7”
Scape Height: 44”
Branches: 5
Bud Count: 23
Bloom Season: ML
Color/Description: Bright China-red with burgundy-black eye, golden yellow throat and narrow white edge to petals.
Ploidy: Tet
Bloom Habit: Diurnal
Foliage: Dorm
Pod Parent: Welding The Titanic
Pollen Parent: Velvet Eyes
Year Bred: 2013
Rust Resistance: A+/3 Years
Fertile: Pollen is easier than pods. Pods take effort and I never get many, but always get a few.
Black Hole Sun, named for a well-known Sound Garden song from the 1990s, as well as for the dark eye in the glowing flower, was a surprise, a fluke even. I had been in love with the flower of Velvet Eyes for years, but it was difficult to grow here. Velvet Eyes did turn out to have very good rust resistance, though. I tried many different crosses with Velvet Eyes and found most of them just made more small, tender little plants that didn't love my garden. Finally, in desperation and on a whim, I made a series of crosses between Nate Bremer's giant Welding The Titanic and Velvet Eyes. Some of those seedlings were hardy and vigorous. This one also turned out to have this jaw dropping flower. I am very excited about the possibilities, as Black Hole Sun takes the dark eye of Velvet Eyes and combines it with the giant plant of Welding The Titanic, and the flower is big too. It is stunning in the garden.
The seedlings of this cross went through the last three years of my rust screening, and Black Hole Sun rated A+ during those years. This seedling represents the foliage type I would have chosen (dormant), the flower color/eye combination I was hoping for and the high rust resistance. This is a successful 'salvage cross', though I didn't really raise enough of this cross to have ensured this many genes together expressing the way I was hoping. I just got lucky with Black Hole Sun.
Below you will find multiple pictures of Black Hole Sun from 2017 through 2021, first in the seedling bed and then in the line out garden. Note the poly flower in the third picture. I see these every year on a few flowers. Click on any image below to see a large image and easily look through all the images in a photo gallery.
