OK here is the instructions Wilfred sent me on "How to pollinate Hibiscus"
Tina
Now comes pollination of hibs, to bad only three hibs bloom today to show you how to pollinate hibs.
First you get the hib your planing to collect the pollen from that your going to use to pollinate the other. Usually the bloom will start to produce the pollen after it has opened for an hour, best time to start the process of pollinating them.
Than you get the hib you wanted to pollinate to get seeds from.
Notice there completely different in size but it doesn't matter. out of this two you could get lots of different sizes and color combinations.
Here's the paint brush I use to pollinate with.
Notice the tip how it is and the type of brush.
Now you take your brush and run it over the pollen gently back and forth a couple of times.
Notice how the pollen has passed onto the tip of the brush.
Now go to the other hib you want to pollinate, I'm pointing to were the pollen needs to go, those five little round ball shape things are the stamen, female part of the flower.
Now take the brush full of pollen and start to pollinate it.
Start with one and keep repeating it until all has been pollinated.
Notice how the pollen has transfer to the stamens, do it gently or you can break the stamen off without wanting to.
Now you can see all the pollen on the stamens, you can do this with any hib you got at hand
You can take pollen from the same hib and pollinte itself with it.
Should look something like this when finished
If temp. is right and you've done it correctly you should start to notice a seed pod begin to swell were the flower use to be.
After a few weeks you should have something like this. best time to pollinate is one hour after the blooms have opened and best time for hibs to set seeds is when temp. are in the low 70*F to the high 60*F. If temp. are to high, plant can set seed pods but without the seeds, pods would be empty when opened.
When seed pods turn to a yellowish cream color, you have to check on the twice a day on a daily base or they will open and you will lose your seeds you waited so long for.
Hope this helps you Tina on pollinating your hibs, at least its my way of doing it.
Your Friend Wilfred
There you go, simple easy to follow instructions. Thanks Wilfred!!!!!!
Tina
Thanks Tina & Wilfred. Great lesson. Can't wait to try it myself.
Judy
Nice lesson Wilfred & Tina. This is the time of the year, in warmer climates, to take notice of what blooms are opening in the morning for cross pollinating. While you might have two exact hibiscus you want to cross, it may take awhile before you get blooms on both of them the very same day. Personally I think about color combinations, how each variety grows, and the form of the blooms when considering cross pollination. If it's a cultivator with blooms that don't always open, blooms that face downward or other growing "quirks" it may pass those genetic traits on. I can think of a few in my collection I wouldn't cross pollinate with, just based on some "issues" with their blooms.
Jon
this is great info!
Wilfred & Tina -- Thank you so very much for sharing this technique. Embarrasingly enough, I didn't know what the parts of the flower were. (Blushing)
Do you tag the stems of those you pollinated to keep track of what you pollinated it with? If so, what do you use/how do you tag them?
LOL. I had no clue what the parts of the flower were either a couple of years ago. I think I googled it and then wrote them down. I just take a narrow strip of paper and write the parents names on the paper (ex: Misbehavin X Black Dragon). Then I put tape over the strip so the ink wont wash and the paper wont fall apart if it rains. Then I form a loop/ring with the strip of paper and tape it together on the branch where the seed pod will form. Maybe this picture makes it easier to understand what I mean???
Jon
Thank you for the info!
Jon that is a great idea of you. I always thing I will remember it but I keep forgetting.
Thanks to all, especially to Tina for posting what I sent her through D-mail and letting others who did know how to get a little more information on how to pollinate hibs, also thank you Jon for the tip on labeling the seed pod to be with the easy to make name tags.
Wilfred
Jon
Thanks for the tip on labeling. Great idea.
Tina
Love your tip, Jon. Thanks again Tina & Wilfred. Can't wait to try this myself now that the temp. is better for success. Have a great weekend everyone. I'm still cutting (Wilfred's Way). :-) This is sooooooo much fun!
Judy
does anyone know if you can cross a hardy hib with a tropical? alda
heres a thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1055028/ says there they have.. Not sure how its done or want plant the pod should be on... I would like to try this sometime this summer, Weather it works or not really I only lost 2 flowers.. The thing that scares me is getting them to seed, getting the seeds to grow then what do you do with them after, do you leave them out for the winter and just hope they make it.. After all that work i dont know if i could be the one to test if they are truly hardy lol
I'd sure be interested in your results smurf428, hopefully you'd have 2 plants and you'd risk one fo them for research. Let me know if you ever try!
Wilfred and Tina, OMG, I can't believe I've missed this all this time. It certainly explains why my previous attempts didn't work (the female part of the plant huh?) LOL
Now that I know, hopefully it isn't too late to try this year. I've got a few hibs blooming now, I'll try tomorrow. ;-)
We need to get admin to make this into a stickie for us along with the cutting thread too. I'll send a note, maybe some one else could too.
deb
deb I have a sunny wind (tropical) everytime this thing has flowered i have gotten a seed pod.. I hand pollinated it.. I also and 2 luna pink swirl and rose (hardies) I have a bunch of hardy seeds i have started and of course a bunch of the texas star hibiscus.. I dont know what I can mix and what i can but since i think i got the hand pollination down why not give it a try.. I can never use all the seeds from every pod i get and well if i have to risk not getting a few to try its worth a shot.. Even if it is just a waste of time, i got lots to waste...
that's so cool! you must have worked around flowers before? pollinating?
no just spent ALOT!! of time online reading.. it helps to fill my day and wow is it ever a stress relief.. but Wilfred is the same as i do but i use a cotton swab or just touch the two flowers together (if i can get them that close)
Aways wanted to try to cross pollinate a hardy with a tropical to see if I could get more colors in the hardy type of hibs like orange for instance, that would be great for the people who live in colder climates and cant have tropical outside during the winter season. Only problem is that I don't have any type of hardy hibs here.
Makes me so happy to help others even if its just something I may know about plants, good luck to all of you pollinating your hibs.
Want to thank all who have responded to this tread, at lest I know it wasn't a wast of time and effort.
Your Friend Wilfred
I am goint to try it also next year. Crossing a hardy with a tropical one. My hardy sets lot of seeds when I pollinate them bij hand. The bees don't do the work here. I don't know why. There are lots of them. I bought a few tropicals at gommer and hope they give flowers next year. Haven't seen them bloom yet.
When you compare what's available in hardy hibiscus now vs 10 years ago, there's so much more to choose from now. I think its just a matter of time before we start seeing great color combination in the hardy types.
Jori I hope you succeed with the cross pollinating between hardy and tropical hibs, lots of people would really love expanding their hardy hib collection alright.
Wilfred
Imagine a hardy hib that would look like this!
Hey Jon your right, it probably was the same thing with tropical many years ago and look were we at now. just a matter of time and how many people are trying to do so. Sure hope its sooner than later when this happens.
Wilfred
It was the same with tropicals. At one of the hibiscus meetings I asked about it. They said there are at least 10 times as many now compared to the 1970's. If hardy hibiscus get to the same level as hybrid tropicals, in coloration, they also, will probably, not bloom as often. The nice feature of hardy and garden varieties is their ability to put out lots and lots of blooms.
I would settle for another color even if there just solid..Orange or yellow would be great.. Hibiscus' are so beautiful its a shame the hardy ones are only in a range or red, pink and whites... My tropical is yellow and my hardy is red.. when we were younger we learned that made orange.. But in the real world it doesn't work that way :(
Wilfred your flowers are so beautifu,l i dont think you need to worry about the hardy ones
