Hello all hybridizers I*m fromQ ueensland in Australia. daylilies are very popular around here, and the Mountain View d-l Farm has 2.5 acres of them. I have about 100 plants but so far not much success with hybridizing. so I shall watch your efforts with interest, I have 4.5 acres here, so a rather untidy garden with about 1600 plants, shrubs and trees. I*m 72 but hope to keep going awhile yet.

Like John, I hybridize gesneriads. I haven't worked with chiritas but have crossed kohlerias, sinningias, streptocarpus, aeschynanthus, columnea, and nematanthus. Right now, I am most excited about a nematanthus cross ("Goldfish Plant") which involves the three largest flowered species. I have three seedlings with their first buds on them now. The flowers will be about two inches long and hang from pedicels about three + inches long. Aside from gesneriads I have made crosses with abutilons and with aloes.

John, I have an idea of a hardy plant you could try for your climate--salvias. There are hardy species from the temperate North America and sub-tropical shrubs from Mexico. They should cross to make hardy herbaceous perennials that would extend the hardiness. There are a wealth of beautiful Mexican salvias in cultivation now in California.

Jon, haven't you also worked with Abutilon? I'm interested in hearing about hybridizing in this genus.

Jon Dixon,

Your nematanthus cross sounds most exciting; hope you will be able to post a photograph!

As John Boggan mentioned, you have made crosses with Abutilon. I have questioned whether cold hardiness can be increased in the hybrids by crossing with A. vitifolium. Any thought on this?

Joseph,

The rest of the story on Trillium is that it may take up to 545 days to germinate!

Frankenseed,

What about some dill-fennel crosses? Perhaps using that ornamental bronze fennel?

Mare,

Hope you will find some promising seedlings from all those crosses! Would be willing to help out if there are too many seeds next year...

Ailsa,

Great to have you here with us from Australia. Keep hybridizing, there is nothing like unbloomed seedlings to keep you going!

Have a great weekend, all.

John

Abutilon vitifolium is sometimes refered to the genus, corynabutilon. I seem to recall from the early 80's that crosses were tried by a friend of mine but seed wasn't produced. We concluded they were incompatable; and I haven't thought about it in years. But, the history of hybridizing is full of myths that get disproved by experience.

The crosses I made were with a hybrid of megapotanicum called 'Victory', which has small leaves, short internodes, and a cascading habit. I was going for bushy compact plants with smaller leaves and flowers that opened up more. After all, if you bend back the petals of a cupped abutilon until flat open you get a hibiscus. An open flower also presents a much bigger flower for the same amount of petalage. The first cross I made was with a fairly stockly large hybrid with more open red flowers called 'Mauna Loa', and the results were very nice compact branching plants in a range from yellow to deep red. Two that I named from that first cross were 'Frieda' (yellow) and 'Voodoo' (deep red). I went on to make more crosses with these and other hybrids until I just ran out of energy to keep all the plants going while making more. I still have about 30 or more pots of abutilons out under the oak trees and I planted a garden of a friend with about 45 selections, and have given cuttings to various people and nurseries. I found that in two or more generations there were plants making more open flowers and plants with very compact foliage. An additional advantage is that the species, megapotanicum is somewhat hardier than the old hybrid strain, best characterized by the Logees hybrids. Megapotanicum will grow in the Pacific Northwest including Vancouver. There is an English strain (whose name I forget) with very open large flowers (Oh, I think they are Benary's Giants), but they have short pedicels and large leaves on long petioles making a very gawky weedy looking plant. I did one hybrid with them and started to get very good results, better foliage and open flowers. There is still a great deal of potential with abutilons.

Hi all,
I have been doing my own crosses of bearded irises for the last 4 years. I am just starting to see results, and should have heaps of seedling bloom next Spring. I am mainly interested in dwarf and intermediate bearded irises, as well as Pacific Coast irises. I have some Miniature Tall Bearded seeds to sow, and may do some crosses there, if they appeal to me.
I have done a few daffodil crosses, but not yet grown the seed. I also collect what the bees produce on the daylilies, but haven't worked out how to grow the seed yet.

I like the sound of the Pardancanda project. I have both parent plants ( I. dichotoma in seed form, and another species of Belamcanda in seed form from SIGNA) I also have a number of Candylilies, which I have not yet seen bloom.
The seed was sent to me from the US, and my first lot of seedlings struggled in the ground, so I put them back in pots, and they are doing much better. My second batch of seedlings, planted 1 year later, are catching up to the first.
My B. chinensis (1 fan only) is also doing better in a pot. I thought I had lost it in the garden.
Soooo .... It will be quite some time before I can do any crosses back to the parent plants .. Say 4 or 5 years.
Which brings us to the most important quality in a hybridiser - patience, by the bucket ful!
I am in Australia - a definite advantage in getting seedlings to the flowering stage earlier. It would be great to play a part in getting new plants to the commercial stage, and MTB's and Pardancanda are little known here.
Cheers, Jan

Thanks all for comments on getting trillium to gernimate. I've got my few seeds going through a second cold period right now, in hopes of getting gernimation. I'm also looking forward to the approaching trillium bloom season to try and make a lot more crosses.
John, the Chiritas are absolutely lovely! How can I get some? Any favorite suppliers? And how could I get some of your own lovely hybrids?
Joseph.

.............only Hosta so far.........Jim

I also am hybridizing daylilies. Just planted my 3rd year bunch of seeds in the basement under lights. Had some seedlings bloom last year, but it was such a wet summer I didn't expect much.

Am hybridizing Unusual Form daylilies.

Hi Pam,

Sounds interesting! Are you using named varieties for parents, or crossing some of your own seedlings? Would like to hear more about the Unusual Forms... spiders? doubles? I like picotee edges that match the eyezone.

John

Hello All

I breed roses. Last year I got seeds from crosses with cacti: Lobivia-Echinopsis-Trichocereus species and hybrids colection I just started on my balcony.

Jon I would be quite happy getting a few cuttings of your compact Abutilon strain with bettter flowers. Here on the French Riviera Abutilons are often used as recurent flowering shrubs. But are too big and leggy growers.

Pierre.

Right now I have about 11 african violet seed pods maturing, I also have one streptocarpus seed pod. Hope to extend into other gesneriads when I get some. Nicole.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what could be crossed with the moonflower vine which as you know is only available in white.

I want hybridize all my lilacs (simple, double, differentes colors)with Syringa Vulgaris Dappled Dawn .. a wonderful variegated lilac..
Hendy..

Lilacs! Very exciting idea. There are many areas here that could use work, including selection for late blooming and repeat blooming. Also, consider selecting for color of seedpods, and for fall color. There are some 25 or more species, many with characteristics making them worth using more. Flowers (florets) must be emasculated before the petals open, or they will have self pollinated already.

I'd love to see some hybrids using the Japanese Tree Lilac as a parent. This one can be trained as as small tree, with wonderful bark. Has cream colored flowers in early summer. Suggested on another forum (Hosta?) for growing hostas under.

Good luck, and keep us posted. (I wonder how long from seed to bloom? ) John

Abutilon, of course!
And canna.
A.

this year im gonna be hybridizing hybrid tomatoes to see what comes. call me crazy

I am always looking for seeds from wide crosses I will be willing to trade for some or buy some I breed corn , squash , and other veggies . the cacti X rose , and blackberry x rose facinate me what if these hybrids can be crossed!! I have interest in irises, daylilies. glads, amarillis. but i wont be able to breed them for a while.

No mention of Hellebores yet!! They must be one of the easiest plants to cross, the acaulescent species will interbreed readily.It was this interbreeding that gave rise to Helleborus x Hybridus.My real passion,no,obsession is for wild species Hellebores although i do grow a few x Hybridus and other hybrids, x Sternii, x Ericsmithii.This year i have been trying to get H.x Ballardii by crossing H.Niger with H.Lividus, using Niger as the mother plant.The pods on the Niger are swelling nicely so lets hope it sets viable seed.The flowers on the H.Niger were emasculated before the pollen fluffed up and the plant was grown under glass, in isolation.Each flower on the H.Niger was pollenated with H.Lividus pollen once a day for three days.The resultant plants(H.x Ballardii) aren't hardy but make good cool conservatory/glasshouse plants and good forms are very attractive and worth the effort.The only downside is that H.x Ballardii is sterile so the cross must be repeated every time you want new plants.If my plant doesn't abort and sets what i am sure will be H.x Ballardii seed,i MIGHT have some to spare to anybody thats interested.Be warned,it could be one or two seeds per person but its better than nothing!!

Hey John,

I'm new to the forum and another Hemerocallis fan here. My previous crosses were all "what ifs"- what would happen if I cross this plant A with plant B. This year, thanks to three seedlings from last year, I have a defined goal, a tetraploid with a clear picotee edge and no eye.

I've also been hybridizing African Violets for many years.
My goals here are: A) show quality "girl" foliage, B) a light blue flower with a raspberry edge.

Ed

Anyone out there hybridizing tropicals?

I have worked with gladiolas, lilies, African violets and orchids by now my work is with Hedychiums (butterfly ginger) and water lilies.

Have produced some exciting hybrid Hedychiums especially in the art shades.

Hello,collegues hibridizers,
it seems I am the only from Baltic region here. My great hobby is tulips especially double varietes. I worked with tulips many years and have some nice hybrids.

John, your Chiritas are very lovely, indeed! How do you
increase them? By seeds?
Look forward in hearing from everyone ( maybe somebody from
Netherlands?)

Orchids, mainly, been working with some interesting rose crosses involving wild roses in my area with standard Teas and antiques. CJM:)

Tom Wagner has recently inspired me to rekindle corn hybridization. I grow corn evey year and have 3 hybrids of my own, but since he has reintroduced an article about crossing diploid teosinte (Zea diploperrenis) with Eastern Gamagrass and established corn varites, I've been thinking of intresting possibilities. Already I have bought Gamagrass, and I'm looking for Zea diploperrenis seeds here, in Mexico and Austrialia.

Enrique

Hi John,

I am living in Jakarta, Indonesia and have been hybridizing rainlilies. I actually like daylilies, but unfortunately daylilies could not set any flower in the tropical lowland of Jakarta. Is there any friend who has also been hybridizing rainlilies?

If convenient, please try to visit my webpage:

www.geocities.com/RainForest/1978/

Best regards,

Fadjar

hi i am interested in crossing roses but this time does anyone know of any grape vine that does not get powdery mildew and has sweet fruit as i have previosly tried to cross swartzman but the fruit is horribly sour, thanks for any help. i am also interested in crossing a small wild cherry tomatoe with a real large one as the cherry tomatoe is very vigorous and didnt frost when other large ones did also i am interested in creating a large butternut pumpkin with a large area with no seeds i already have a fairly large one . they are smooth and can be peeled with a potatoe peeler.

Bunches of irises: Pardancanda, dicotoma, Siberian X Setosa and Setosa X Siberian, the JI X Siberian things, TBs and TB X SDB, Versicolors, Missouriensis, and a few other species-X irises.

Veggies for our short season: large sweet onions that'll store till May, short season cukes with some size and sweetness, a large slicing tomato that will produce in under 65 days and an odd looking long & narrow plum type for slicing into salads.

The odd flower or two: A few daylilies, lilacs, scabiosa, poppy anemones, camas, geraniums, violas, Oriental poppies, and a few wildflowers.

This past year I managed to hybridize Haworthia turgida onto Haworthia emelyae. These are leaf succulents from South Africa. The effort produced eight seeds of which six were viable. These plants grow somewhat slowly, but I can tell already that the seedlings have a blend of characters of the parents and may even have a few unexpected features. Haworthias are believed to be undergoing an explosive radiation, and the classification is controversial.
naturalist

No one has mentioned Lilium, which I thought of trying next year. Is it very difficult, or is there some other reason?

I enjoy hybridizing daylilies,lilies,azaleas,,hostas i let the bees do that and grow and select the results,have done some with amaryllis,Delores

I sometimes like to hybridize cactus, especially Astrophytum because they are easy to pollinate and get good result. Here is the link to a hybid cultivar within the same species that was actually done by a friend of mine quite a few years back. Two Japanese cultivars of A. myriostigma were crossed.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Glad to hear that someone else finally mentioned cacti. I love flowers, but living in the desert, plus having a sort of black thumb is very limiting. I have recently collected a small army of varieous types of cacti, which I will encourage to cross-pollinate at will, and will also assisst. Once we get a few more interesting things going, we will then separate to isolate the breeders. (that's the theory, anyway) I feel like a mad scientist....I guess I got the hair to go with it....?

For fun, this last summer I tried crossing a shrubby white large flowered abutilon with a yellow small flowered trailing abutilon. I now have 12 seedlings which are starting to bud. So far, all the plants are short ( 3-6" tall )and fairly bushy. The leaves seem to have characteristics of both parents. I just wish the buds would hurry and open!!! Will the flowers be small or large? Yellow or white or a combination of both? It's like christmas!!!!!!!!!

Searching the Googol has turned up no succesful examples of a hybrid between the coast and the sierra redwood.anyone out there trying this?

I am working with vitis, zea maize, and squash. Most of the work with grapes is for muscat flavored hybrids of Vinifera with native species. My favorite exotic hybrid is one with Rupestris, Cordifolia, Vitis Caribaea and a Muscat hybrid called ES 4-23-60. It has the flavor of a mountain huckleberry. With corn I have a red Open pollenated sweet corn that comes about 98% red shrunken kernels, and with squash, I've crossed Sweet Meat with some Japanese Kabocha type squash to get a smaller winter squash. Sweet meat can run over 20 lbs each.

hi all ... 50 amaryllis seed pods ae opening in my house here in roanoke virginia . these crosses were made with interesting combinations from 30 named hybrids. the parentage of each cross is recorded in the event that something special eventually results . this is a new endeavor so i would certainly benefit from and appreciate your advice. ;-)
here are some issues of concern.......
how soon should i plant the seeds?
what type of soil ,moisture,temp and light are best?
since we freeze here in the winter, i will grow them under a 1000 watt grow light at that time...can i grow them year round until mature enough to bloom ?
approx how many years will it take to see the first blooms?
am i crazy or just a plant nut ? ;-)
this is my first posting in the forum .. thanks to all in advance ........ happy gardening.sincerely , victor

Hi Victor,

Sounds like you are very experienced with Amaryllis.

As far as the seeds, I have often read that they need to be planted very fresh, so as soon as possible.

I'd recommend some good, sterile, seed-starting soil. Keep moist, not wet; water from bottom. Warm temperatures, either outdoors (hot there in VA yet?) or indoors under lights, keeping them as close as possible to the lights once they sprout.

My guess is that they might need a dormant period, so not sure about growing them year round. Although they are tropical, so would't they grow year-round in their native habitat?

About 2 or 3 years to the first blooms.

Maybe you are just plant crazy?

Sounds like you will have a large number of seeds... If you have any crosses with the butterfly amaryllis, and require help growing some out, please send me an email!

Good luck!

Rico

This is my third year for hybridizing daylilies. I'm going to try a few hostas this year.

I crossed A. Philadelphia x DL Stella D'Oro. seed pods are huge and i will be planting tomorrow.

Fadja Marta-i have x rain lilies with DL-seeds are planted.

Rico-i have pollinated seeds from the Papilio, although it seems to have taken, the pods do not have mature seeds

woohoo- sunflowers! (big grin). I know, they're easy, but I came up with a good one I'm working on, it's zoned red and yellow - not inside and outside like most sunflowers, but across, so there is an hourglass shape in red with yellow next to it, or sometimes it's half red and half yellow. I just discovered Rose hybridizing, so I'm starting that in spring, and right now I'm trying to work with fancy mums. I have a great collection of spiders, quills, anemones, and unclasses mums that I'd like to play with!
Wishing everyone fun & success!
Norcalmom

i am dabbling with some daylilies this year I am pretty new to it so I have only done a few but I am hoping for some really nice plants and whatever I do not think is registar worthy I will have some to give away. so far I have two unknowns that are pretty old plants this was my first sucess with a pod forming. I have now crossed an old yellow with the winter frost variety and I have 3 pods there. I also dabbed a little of this pollen on a carolicolossal, and my frankye dean. I know it goes dip to dip and tet to tet but I did not have my little book with me when I found thoses pollen filled anthers and I just couldn't help myself so if it takes great. Today I pollenated a Atlanta royalty with a little nosferatu pollen. Just because they were there, can't wait to see what comes out of these. I have a nice spot to place my seedlings but I believe I am going to start these inside this year as I tried to start some outdoors last year and none germainated?? Don't know what I did wrong. Anyway check ya later

I'm hybridizing some lotuses with a black water lily to recreate a new lotus.

I haven't hybernized anything yet, but I made up my mind to start this spring
hybernizing my brugmansia's. I had my first seed grown keeper this year and that gave me the excitement to go farther.

My interests in hybridizing cover three plants:

Daffodils

Gladiolus

Asiatic Lilies

Daffodils take a long time from seed to bloom and an equally long time to evaluated and propagate to reasonable numbers. Each spring, it is a joy to seed these seedlings grow.

Gladiolus can be very interesting, and my growing conditions have not been the best for preserving much of my work.

Asiatic lilies--some possible success here. My breeding efforts have been for dwarf upfacing single petal POLLEN-FREE asiatic lilies. I have been fortunate to obtain some with the benefit of their having wide petals-something that is not common with POLLEN FREE Asiatic lilies.

only crosses i try these days are aloes and related. AFAIK, the seedlings have only been self pollinated (i don't try any isolation, emasculation etc), which is ok, since i like seedlings. in spring/summer 2007, the bloom period overlaps differed from the usual, so i prioritized the fresh opportunity.

long ago i tried a lot of wide crosses (stuff that i had)... various irises (from different groups) aristea. - you get the idea :-)
some of these needed emasculation, covering, ,, tiresome. most of the flowers never set fruit/seed.

the only "success" is a traditional reliable cross, crinum x amaryllis. only one seedling survived to maturity and it does ok. I'm still interested in trying related species or whatever, preferably dryish. (i have one retail hippeastrum bulb that manages to maintain its size despite calif rain season being ~reverse of its origin's. it never gets close to blooming)

when i think of massive-selection projects such as hardier agapanthus, i visualize acres planted out to survive or not. but the infrastructure for that is financially prohibitive.
instead i considered evaluating plants with many existing survivors. almonds seemed the best, since seedlings will survive in various areas nearby. unfortunately, conditions vary too much for useful comparison. :-(

other (semi)weedy plants could be project candidates. quercus, rhamnus, rhus, corydalis, epilobium, arbutus, pistacia. allium is a large genus... but... many species in a genus doesn't guarantee many potential cross parents. and we wouldn't want the offspring to be too successful...

spider hemerocallis are freaky looking :-) . i guess larger re/bloom period and vigor would be the biggest goals.
daylillies (stella d'oro or generics) are common in commercial landscapes but they need way too much irrigation. they strongest ones i've grown died off on me after a few years of (relative) coddling. i know there are numerous H species so maybe they could be tested for better tolerance for dry heat.

Hi fellow gardeners,
I am hybridizing roses: a pinkish red and lobelia blue ; and apricot rose and a pink rose; a bright yellow rose and a red rose. Wish me luck will post pictures soon!!!

Hello all,

I am hybridizing zinnias. Strictly as a hobby, not as a business. Zinnias are fun to breed because they already come in a wide range of colors, flower forms, and plant habits. And, best of all, it is a fast-paced hobby because zinnias come up in only a few days from seeds and bloom in less than 7 weeks. You can get several generations a year and so you can see the results of your crosses quickly, and plan new crosses among those hybrids.

My breeding goals are new or improved flower forms, color patterns, and color combinations. And better plants. This is a picture of an "open" flower form that resulted from crossing two hybrids last year. Its petals are loosely placed and not tightly packed. It was used as a breeder to produce hybrid seed that I will plant this year.

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A lot of zinnias have many layers of petals closely packed on top of each other like shingles on a roof, and I am trying to get away from that, and having some success. For more information about current amateur zinnia breeding activity, click on this link to the Annuals forum: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 9.

ZM

Amaryills....
I'm Waiting for my 1st seedling to Flower
The Seed Perent
Johnson (White/Red Edge)

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Pollen Doner
Unknown Poss Salmon

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The Seedling

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*Note*
The Scape is a LOT Bigger Now

I wanted to ask the question about hybridizing daylily's the tetraploids are chemically treated to double the chromosones so do the seed remain chemically changed or do they revert? Or do the seedlings have to be chemically treated also. Just wondering. Thanks for the answer in advance.
James

James,

I think that once you convert a plant to a tetraploid by treating its seedling with colchicine, that its seeds will also be tetraploids. I know that was the case with zinnias, in which colchicine was used to create two tetraploid zinnia cultivars, State Fair and Burpee's Big Tetra Mix.

ZM