What are some plants that could be amazing if someone tweaked them just a bit with successful breeding?

For instance: Turks Cap is an amazing flower, but it's so leggy and scraggly looking. Someone needs to breed a Turk's Cap with a bushier form.

Whether its a plant that's already great, but could fill another garden niche perfectly if only... or a plant that just isn't great but could be great if tweaked, tell me the plants you think could be improved, and what the improvement should be.

Don't worry if you don't know if it's scientifically feasible. As long as you aren't suggesting we breed a rose with the trunk of an oak tree, we won't worry too much about genetics and stuff. Non-botanists welcome. What are your wishes?

Somebody please breed the scent back into roses! I would buy tons of roses but I never see the old-school type, just those "fancy" hybrid shrubs.

Sorry, that is not really what you asked but I had to get it off my chest.

I'd like to breed inch plant (Tradescantia zebrina) with fruit trees to have ground-level fruits with gorgeous leaves.

If we could mix corn with peanuts, they'd be Cracker Jack plants.

Breed me with a squirrel & I could dig all day! ...but I'd forget where even more of my plants are.

Someone should breed lupine and baptisia that bloom later in the season.

Someone should breed a heat-tolerant "classic" poppy (red with black spots) with a really long blooming season. Maybe Papaver atlanticum x Papaver orientale x Papaver rhoeas.

Tomatoes that don't get blight! Gardenias that bloom constantly and aren't so darn fussy!

Cold Hardy Amaryllis to plant outside!

I need to get my Anthurium warocqueanum to cross with my Anthurium papilliliaminum. Been trying, so far no cigar

keithp2012 said:Cold Hardy Amaryllis to plant outside!

Amaryllis was crossed with Crinum americanum (Swamp lily) to give xAmacrinum. I had two plants: they are really cold hardy, you can just leave them out all Winter with no ill consequences.
The problem is flowers aren't exactly showy, blooming is inconsistent and even after cleaning and trimming the plants will invariably look scraggy after three years. Dug them up, chopped them with a machete, chipped and turned them into composting material.

Coleus with larger, showier blooms

Coleus that can survive zone 8 winters!

Lots of things that can survive zone 8 winters.

Add a hardiness zone or two to any plant, and you've added a lot of potential buyers of that plant.

Coleus is beautiful.

Someone should breed coleus or a similar plant into something i could use as a colorful mini-hedge. I would love to put a colorful shapeable mini-hedge around a garden bed.

Coleus is a natural annual here (9A). Once it flowers, unless you pinch off the flowers on a regular basis, it will go to seed and then it dies back. I pinch off flowers all summer long then let it seed in the fall and it sprouts back up on its own in the next Spring

Coleus are not annuals but can't take any frost. I've kept individual plants for decades at times, bringing them inside for winter. Hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies love Coleus blooms so I leave them on.

What I mean is it performs like an annual because of not being cold hardy. Mine are planted in ground. I am going to get some new ones this season to plant in my little dog's memorial garden

Awww, that's sweet! Have you had any happen to survive winter? Last year a seed sprouted in a hole at the bottom of a tree in our yard and I noticed last weekend it's still alive and growing again.

No. it tends to fade away even if we have no freezes. But it always reseeds

Very cool. I've only ever gotten just a few sprouts, ever, including seed packets.

Let's breed Hydrangeas onto azalea roots. Have you ever tried to kill an azalea?

purpleinopp said:Very cool. I've only ever gotten just a few sprouts, ever, including seed packets.

Let's breed Hydrangeas onto azalea roots. Have you ever tried to kill an azalea?

Azaleas die very easy at my house, I thought they were easy to kill all this time?

I guess it is, for the tiny ones. I was thinking about the ones I've tried to evict that someone, decades ago, planted way too close to the house. They're like icebergs with most of the mass below the surface. Mangling down to ground level several times with a chainsaw just invigorates. Trying to dig... like trying to dig up a tree, soooo many big, hard roots. Moving a big Hydrangea is so easy by comparison, or a rose bush, no trouble severing roots to get them up.

Wouldn't it be great if some kind of tree could be bred with morning glories? A big tree full of MG blooms would go so well with that 1st coffee.

Cross some of those fragrant double Oleanders ( especially the pale yellow one ), and cross them with plumerias .

cross a peony with a rose to get blooms all summer and just think of the fragrance!