Cross Pollinating You can create hybrids in your garden by cross pollinating blooms that you like for their particular colour, size, shape or other qualities. Once you understand how plants reproduce themselves through pollination then you can try cross-pollinating them. When the pollen from one flower is carried to the stigma of another flower they combine their genetic information (RNA). Their seeds should produce a hybrid of the 2 original plants. You can never be 100% sure what you’ll get when you cross-pollinate plants but it’s fun to experiment. The added bonus is that you might create something beautiful that you get to name!
To cross-pollinate flowers first choose two flowers just before they open. Select an unopened blossom that will be called “Mom” and gently open the petals. Remove all of the stamens with tweezers leaving just the stigma in the centre of the bloom. Put a paper or plastic bag over “Mom’s” bloom. Select a “Dad” bloom and put a bag over it before it opens being careful not to break the stem.
When “Dad” is fully opened shake the bag gently to knock off the pollen, which will fall into the bag. Carefully open both bags.
Load the gathered pollen from the “Dad” flowers onto a fine paintbrush and paint in onto the stigma of the ’Mom’ blossom.
Put “Mom” back into a bag for a few more days. Label the plant so you know which one you’ve cross-pollinated.
When the bloom has been fertilized it will produce seeds that you can save and plant next year. Be sure to label the seed packet well and enter it in your Garden Journal. The hybrid may not have obvious changes in its appearance because plants carry similar genes, which you can’t change unless you have a degree in microbiology! If you want only plants with the same characteristics from year to year then simply save the seeds from your favourite blooms and plant the seeds next year. |
