MindiHammerstone said:Wonder why they don't put the scientific names on the seed packets. Or how you know the chromosome numbers and which ones can cross.
Hi Mindi,
Knowing the chromosome numbers is key to knowing which ones can cross, and I got the chromosome numbers from the Zinnia chapter in that Flower Breeding and Genetics book (the expensive one). But most of the zinnias you have now can cross. Just know that the Profusions, Zaharas, and Pinwheels are 46-chromosome zinnias, and could presumably cross within each other, but not with "regular"
Zinnia elegans zinnias, which have 24-chromosomes.
I don't know why they don't put scientific names on the seed packets. Maybe there is some disagreement on the scientific names for some things and they just want to avoid controversy.
I continue my interest in the narrow petaled tubulars. Some specimens have petals that are almost like needles.
My interest in them is more what they can become, than what they are now. I am crossing them with other forms and won't know the potentialities of that until I start getting recombinations from those crosses. The really new stuff doesn't show up until the recombination phase. More later.
ZM
