GeologicalForms said:Thanks Lynn! Lots of imagination went into these crosses and very few of them were made without a specific goal for the improvement on the parent cultivars. That said, I harvested much less robust looking seed from my hand crosses than from my bee pollinated bloom stalks so who knows what we'll see out of these, but I'm sure it'll be an adventure.
JungleShadows said:Sol, I have the same problem as I try to be a "good bee" in my crosses but the bees set much more seed than I do. On some cultivars I've gotten so few seed from hand crosses that I take what the bees give me. On these cultivars even they aren't too good at setting seed!
Am sure it's a question of not getting the stigmas at the right stage. I generally hit them with pollen on two days. Some parents set seed so easily, others not so much. Some of these may have narrower windows of opportunity for a succesful pollination. In irises, I've found that actually forcing pollen on the stigmatic lip before the flower fully opens actually works better than letting it open. It may be having pollen on the stigma prior to the receptive stage might be a better approach with semps too as this will catch a receptive stage. Will test that idea a bit this season.
Kevin
« Return to the thread "Pollinating sempervivum 101"
« Return to Sempervivum forum
« Return to the Garden.org homepage
