They do need cross pollination and I usually need to hand pollinate my plants. I don't do anything fancy with brushes. I just use my fingers. I take pollen from the anther of one plant and put it on the stigma of another. The seed pod takes about 6-9 months to ripen and the seeds remain viable for a while, at least a year. I keep my brug seeds cool and dry. I have kept them in the fridge but usually just keep them somewhere that the temp is constantly cool. You can plant seeds fresh or they can be dried and stored. I don't bother peeling the cork off of fresh seeds but I do soak and remove the covering on dried seeds. The plant might not resemble either parent and you will often end up with a white bloom. You also can't determine a seedlings true color by it's first flush. Wait for the 2nd or 3rd to see what the true color is and temp can affect color. My blooms aren't as vibrant during cool temps.
Karyn

I have two types of brugs in my yard and neither one of them ever sets seeds. I had no idea you have to cross pollinate. I have seen yellow brug trees in Socal with tons of seed pods so i bet theres some insect that does the pollinating job.

Here the main one is the Sphynx moth. Anything that's able to reach far into the bloom can pollinate it. I do think that they rely mainly on nighttime pollinators, hence the scent of the bloom only being detected at night. I don't know if they are just difficult or what. Even with hand pollination I only have a fraction of the blooms that are successfully pollinated. Then there's people that don't do anything and have loads of pods.
Karyn

Thank you for the information ! I will give it a try this year, and hope the season will be long enough here for the seed pods to mature, You are great !!
Sandra,
^,,^

I know if I would have had more than one brug last fall those moths would have done the job, lol. They guarded those flowers and scared the crap out of me when I went to sniff one and it buzzed out and hovered right in my face, lol.

I find that some brugs pollinate easily and others won't produce seedpods worth a darn. My Tiara is loaded with pods, some done by phantom pollinators and some by me. There are 12 pods on Tiara right now.

I, also, have an unknown white that pollinates easily. Here are two of the 6 pods on this brug....9 inches long and have been growing for over 6 months. I have no idea what the cross is except UN x UN.

Pink Beauty had two pods, short and fairly rounded.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:480519}}

I only have 1 plant that will set seed without help and that's my Butterfly. My others don't do a darn thing without a bit of help. Jarie remember that young man that used to post, he worked in a college botany dept? He had pods all over his greenhouse brugs and I don't think that he hand pollinated. He must of had something flying around in there.
Karyn

Yes, Karyn...Nate. Must be busy, haven't seen him in awhile. He was really interested in brugs. Bet that was a sight seeing all those seed pods hanging everywhere. Sphynx moths probably have a field day or should say night after Nate goes home for the evening.

My Tiara looks strange, too...so many hanging from it. Would be nice if some of them would turn into something special. I have it crossed with Ecuador Pink, Pink Perfektion, Versi Peach, Pink Beuaty, Taylor Dawn, Rothkirch and don't remember the rest. My only problem is that I have little patience with the slow germination process.

I tried to hand pollinate my only blooming one this winter but it didn't work. I will try again when I get some more blooms. I have some pollen in the freezer just waiting to get spread, lol.