I am having trouble setting pods on many of my plants this year. I don't know if your problem is specific to the polytepaling,but keep trying.

Betsy

Thanks for the encouragement, Betsy.

I'm thinking Chevron Spider is just not a fertile pod parent. Because I've taken pollen from it and dabbed other dips, and they're holding so far. Guess it's all a lot of experimenting!

Julie

Perhaps it is pod reluctant. I looked for children on Tinkers and it listed 4 as registered 1 from pod,3 from pollen. I would (and have) look for buds that will open the next morning and found the pistil sticking out and pollenated it before it opened and had success.Try that.

Betsy

Just because a cultivar is blooming poly does not change the genetics of the flower. It will be just as fertile or unfertile while blooming poly and it will be just as likely or unlikely to create polys when it is not blooming poly.

To get polys it would be best to start with cultivars which are known to bloom poly a high percentage of the time. Many cultivars will bloom poly on rebloom and many will bloom poly one season only. There are some such as FOUR DIAMONDS & CHIEF FOUR FINGERS that bloom poly 100% of the time.

Jackarias,
Thanks for your informative reply. I'm not trying to get a poly out of the cross, I just happen to like the pattern on Chevron Spider. There is one more bud left to open for this season and I'll try using it as a pod parent. If it doesn't work, maybe I'll blame the roaming rabbits that might be attracted by the white tags blowing in the night breeze. (The blooms are on short scapes, this being CS's first year in my garden). I've succeeded pollinating 3 or 4 other dips with CS's pollen, so if they mature into viable seed pods, I'll be tickled pink.

Betsy, thanks for your pollinating suggestion.

Julie

Try taking some stigmatic fluid from a spent pistil from any flower and put a drop on CHEVRON SPIDER'S pistil before you add the pollen. Also try giving it shade protection to lower the temperature of the flower. I have used both methods successfully when nothing else works.

The flower temperature in the full sun will be 11 - 15 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. Once the flower goes above about 95 degrees it will not set. By giving the flower shade it can set. Also the pollen needs to send a thread from the stigma all the way down to the ovary to implant the pollen's DNA. The pollen does not go down the chamber but remains on top. It sends a thread to an egg in the ovary down one of the chambers. To do this it needs food (stigmatic fluid) and the longer the pistil the longer it takes so the more chance of failure. I don't have any experience with CHEVRON SPIDER but I believe it is pod fertile. Try is both ways though just to be safe.

Jackarias,

I should have taken Botany in college instead of Geology!
Wow! What great information you are sharing. Yes, I will try the stigmatic fluid trick, and the shade protection - maybe rig up an umbrella somehow. My neighbor already thinks I'm a little nuts, but seeing an umbrella in my garden may cause a strange reaction from my neighbor AND DH!

I'm clipping your post.

Thanks again,

Julie