Nice one, what crosses are you going to make?

Sander

You fooled me by the title of the post. I was thinking that that specific Tillandsia (Durrell) wouldn't be the type you'd grow, not spiny. As I see it's a Crypt and NOT a till. I've got Jim's hybrid till that goes by the same name, so you can see where my confusion comes from.

My Cryptanthus Ti just flowered this week, much to my surprise. I have no other crypts so I can't do much to pollinate it. Are they self pollinators? I do have some Distichantha pollen available.

Sander, I should cross this beauty with the elegant Lisa's hybrid, Cryp.'Ken Vinzant'
if the later didn't last week ago and I didn't keep his pollen, too.
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LOL... ;-)) Gonz..sorry for that !

Hey..Winterlager, did you mean a remarkable, Disteganthus basilateralis?
That must be a real awesome spiny which I'ld love to get.

Chanin, I'm so glad you are growing Ken and Lisa side by side! They look happy. ;-)

Winterlager, I'm not sure if any of the Crypts will self-pollinate. I've had a number of them set seed due to insect pollination so I don't know who the pollen parent was, but most look like outcrosses. If Ti did self, though, the result would be a plain brown plant. The only thing that makes it interesting is its variegation, which wouldn't pass on.

Did you mean to put Ae. distichantha pollen on it? While bigenerics within the same tribe are theoretically possible, they usually don't take. I've never been able to successfully pollinate a Crypt with anything but another Crypt. You have to ask yourself how attractive a cross like that would be anyway.

I guess I first ask myself what pollen I have, and it's usually, none. However, today I had Neo, Aechmea and Crypt pollen all available. I don't see any female organs on this crypt. Perhaps it doesn't matter, but I figure it's a good learning experience.

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LOL, um.... yeah, it matters. Where are you gonna put the pollen? ;-)

Crypts have two kinds of flowers-- perfect ones and ones with male parts only. You can't pollinate the males because there's no stigma, but pollen from their stamens works much better for pollination than pollen from the perfect flowers.

Thanks Lisa, but I meant it doesn't matter if I use the crypt pollen on the other plants and it doesn't take or doesn't make a good looking plant. At this point I'm just playing around and I promise not to register any of them.

I have 2 natural children so I'm pretty sure I know the basics of reproduction. I saw perfect flowers on the Durrell and was confused by my Ti's manly flowers but thinking that the stigma might be hidden inside or something.

Okay WL, I'm glad to hear you've got the basics down!

No, no hidden stigmas. What you see is what you get. Plants, like humans, seem to like to switch it up from time to time, but if you want offspring you need to go back to the basics. ;-)