Shirlee, I cut off the stamens and put them in the little tubes with the forceps I got from pollendabber, let them dry for a bit (doesn't take long in my climate) and then close the lids and shake them to get the pollen to release. Then if I'm not going to use it right away I store it in the fridge and take it out as needed, let it come to room temp for around a half-hour, and then I gently "paint" the pollen collected around the sides of the tube and lid onto the tip of the pistil with a soft, very small paint brush. Then the tube goes back in the fridge as soon as I've used it, unless I collected more pollen that I need to dry for a bit. I think the closed tubes and cases keep the pollen dry -- at least I've not had any that showed moisture so far. But please remember that I live in a very dry climate so I don't need to worry about moisture during the bloom season other than that coming from my sprinklers or a hose. We usually have zero rain all summer. My problem is heat and the weather warming up too fast for the crosses to take. I know Michele suggested I do the pollinating earlier in the morning than I did before, plus I've already started fertilizing to try to get more blooms earlier in the year, so we'll see if that helps this year.
Then at some point after I think I won't be needing the pollen for a while, I move the tubes to one of the larger boxes, record which slots I put them in, and hopefully they'll keep up to two or three years. Someone here (was it Lyle?) said you can keep frozen pollen up to three years or so and it will still be viable.
Hope this is helpful rather than confusing, and maybe you can get input from someone else who lives in a similar climate to yours to find out what would be the best approach for you.
