I've polinated Lady M with caerulea.. Fruit took bloody-freakin-ages to ripen.. It never changes color- Just have to keep givin' it a slight tug till it falls off. Only had 5 or 6 seeds in each.

Never have I managed to get incense to polinate anything or set fruit tho. Should be a cool cross.

My Lady Margaret has set many fruits this year, with seeds. Several have ripened from crossing with incarnata. These fruits ripened very quickly, and dropped off. They have had 3-7 mature looking seeds per fruit. I have to really keep an eye on them, as my dog will eat them. I don't know if she just likes them, or if she thinks they are small toy balls to play with and chew up. LM has also set many fruit now with pollen from P. edulis flavicarpa 'McCain'. None have ripened yet, but one is much larger and heavier than the fruits from incarnata pollen.

Henk Wouters has crossed LM with caerulea. These usually do not bloom, but drop the unopened blooms. See link below for his site. There is a photo of a bloom from this cross on the page.

~kiwinut

Here is a link that might be useful: Henk Wouters' hybrids

Fingers are crossed. I've looked on hybrid lists and googled, but never found any Lady Margaret crosses listed, which is why I assumed they weren't considered fertile. Now I know better!

I'm still baffled by the Incense being the pollinator, since I've never heard or read of anything being pollinated by one. But I'm the only person in the neighborhood with passis, and although our neighborhood borders undeveloped pasture land, I've never found any wild passis growing nearby. I'll be keeping a close eye on it, for sure.

That Lady Margaret x caerulea looks interesting (as does the vitifolia--if I can ever get my vitifolia to flower). I wonder if something like that would fare better in my hotter, drier climate? I've got two different caeruleas growing, plus a Constance Elliott, all of which should be in full flower next summer. Since Lady Margaret's more fruitful than I originally thought, I'll definitely be attempting these crosses!

I would be surprised if you don't have wild incarnata in your area. My Incense has never set fruit from hand-pollination using the incarnata in my pasture, but right after these incarnata stopped blooming, the bees starting getting all over the Incense blooms, and it set 21 fruit! Unfortunately, these will probably not ripen. I can only assume they were bringing in incarnata pollen from the area that were more compatible. I did come across an incarnata vine that was blooming heavily 3 weeks after mine had quit (about 7 miles away), so some continue to bloom later than others.

Well, if there's any wild incarnata growing, it's hiding itself very well. This area is pastureland that's being subdivided into neighborhoods and built up. The land's clear from the farming, with trees and brush running along the fence lines and little else. I've been all through the back roads looking for incarnata growing wild with no luck. Lots of prickley pear cactus and Buckley's yucca, tho (actually, the Buckley's is restricted to one field. Which is interesting unto itself, because that species isn't supposed to grow this far to the south/east).

Now, Comal County is supposed to be the easternmost extent of p. affinis, but I suspect it's limited to the Hill Country (a fault line splits the county--and the state--about half a mile from where I live). I bought mine from a native nursery over in Kerrville and it's growing fine, but my searches for natives growing locally haven't met with much success, either. I suspect p. tenuiloba grows in those limestone hills as well, even though it's not officially listed as indigenous to the area. But again, my hunting for the natives has not borne fruit. But you'd be surprised at the strange places p. caerulea will turn up!

I tried hand pollinating my LM with a number of different varieties and none were successful. I have a good deal of fruit on my other varieties but had to bring them inside because a frost was predicted. I have them under HID lights and they are still producing flowers so I'm hoping that the fruit might ripen. Good luck with your LM fruit.
Karyn

Well, that's that. The fruit aborted this weekend, a little larger than a pea, smaller than a marble.

Patrick Worley was kind enough to answer my questions regarding the mysterious "Incense pollination." He believe it was a "hysterical pregnancy," in that the Incense pollen (which *is* sterile) triggered the ovary development merely by its presence. Not unheard of. Anyway, since the Incense contributed no genetic material to the mix, the fruit aborted.

Still, my mad scientists tendencies will not be denied. I see my Amethyst over there is putting out a new batch of buds which will likely open before the week's out. If I can get some pollen from my Lady Margaret...

My condolences on your loss :'(. I have seen very little, if any pollen on LM, but its worth a try.

I guess you may be a little too far west for P. incarnata. Probably too dry. I would send you some fresh incarnata pollen, but mine quit blooming about 6 weeks ago and the dried pollen I collected does not seem to be working now.