Question on crossing trumpet/aurelian

I tried to cross African Queen this season without luck. When crossing trumpet/aurelian what pollen should you try? I also have Gold Eagle and Black Dragon that are trumpet/aurelian. Should I have tried one of them to cross? Didn't because I wasn't going for their colors.
Any suggestions? Thanks

I would say that if you had trouble setting seed, trying any 4n or tetra trumpet might be tried. The lily register does not mention anything about its ploidity (probably not a word...forgive me) (diploid, triploid, tetraploid) so I would assume that it is a regular diploid. I haven't ever tried crossing it with anything, so I can't help with personal experience though.

The best time to polinate a flower is as soon it`s opening. And cover the stigma with aluminium-foil. Also the wether have a lot of influence if there will be any seds. What did you polinated African Queen with?

Trumpets usually cross quite easily, did you self pollinate it? Most lilies are self-infertile and will not pollinate themselves. African Queen is 2n and should cross readily with any other 2n Trumpet, 4n trumpets have only crossed with other 4n trumpets for me.

I tried one with a trumpet-aurelian seedling and the other was a Regale trumpet. I try to make the cross when they first open up and a few days later I hit it again from the same cross.

Another strategy that you might consider is the use of mixed pollens, especially if you don't know much about the proposed seed parent.

When you say mix, do you mean a combination of several trumpets and several trumpet-aurelian?

In this case, yes. In the case of OTs, for example, I might use a mix of known tet trumpet and other OT pollen. Of course if it takes you won't know who the parent(s) are, but in my opinion it beats using each pollen parent separately, risking multiple seed sets. I like to limit pollinations on one stem to no more than two or, if it is a strong plant, maybe three. It is also important to keep good records with respect to what works as well as what doesn't worked.

I have a long list of failed pollinations....

Thanks

The best time to polinate a flower is as soon it`s opening.

Make that the easiest time to pollinate, and still have clean crosses. As the flower is just opening, there is little chance that it could have received pollen, other than from your purposed cross. As grapus says, if you don't cover and protect your pollination with tin foil afterwards, it could become contaminated with pollen from other lilies that you hadn't intended.

Actually, the best time might be the day after opening. (This is documented with some species, but I don't know about trumpets.) If the pollen doesn't stick to the stigma (end of the pistil), than the flower is not ready to be pollinated. Keep the stigma covered with tin foil and pollinate the next day, when the flower has produced enough sticky glue at the end of the pistil to capture the pollen. The "sticky glue" has special compounds that allow (or encourage) the pollen to germinate and fertilize the flower.

Usually, my lilies (of all sorts) tend to open or begin to open in the very early morning. During the height of my pollinating season, I would get up by daybreak, and cover the freshly exposed stigmas with tin foil. Most often I would need to peel back a few petals. Later that day, or the next, I would perform the pollination. Be as gentle as you can.

Unless I need the pollen for other crosses, I usually remove all the anthers from the flowers I am pollinating. I do this as early as possible, preferably before the pollen is ripe so it doesn't come off on my fingers. This facilitates easy pollination, and just as mix pollen might encourage pollination that might otherwise could be difficult, my thought is that if a flower gets pollinated by its own pollen, it might prevent (somewhat) any fertilization, even from viable suitors. I have no scientific or otherwise data to back this up, but why take a chance?

Rick

Thanks everyone for your comments.