keithp2012 said:If they are outside how do prevent natural cross pollination and pollinate each individual flower like your onion zinnia?
Hi Keith,
I do my pollination in the morning as the pollen florets open and I use tweezers or forceps to pick the pollen florets and use them as "brushes" to apply the pollen to the stigmas. So there is nothing left for the bees on my breeders. Bees are only interested in pollen florets, and are not the least bit interested in a zinnia bloom that doesn't have any pollen florets remaining.
Bees weren't an issue on that onion zinnia because it grew indoors. Some onion flowered zinnias consist of floret-petals that contain their own functional pollen and stigmas, so they normally self themselves just like the conventional pollen florets produce a selfed floret seed, with no need for intervention.
Bees aren't the least bit interested in doing any pollination. They are gathering nectar for use as food. Any pollination they do is purely accidental. The crosses I make are targeted, and I would notice any "natural" pollination when the hybrids bloomed out. I
very rarely see a hybrid zinnia that suggested natural pollination. If a bee accidentally made the same cross I was doing, then I wouldn't see that. I have done a lot of pollination and cross pollination of zinnias over the years, and I have never felt it necessary to bag my female zinnias to prevent bee pollination. I have on occasion used "hair nets" to prevent seed eating birds from accessing a seedhead. But the bees and I get along just fine together in the zinnia patch.
This is another example of a near spherical zinnia bloom.
A sphere is not a particularly interesting flower shape, but it is not a usual zinnia bloom.
ZM
