The purple pollen from one plant needs to be brushed onto the center of another poppy, right? And I would need to isolate the pods as they are opening so the bees don't get them first? And also cut off all the pollen from the pod parent? This is just my guess about how one would go about it. Anyone here ever done it? I have googled till my eyes crossed, but couldn't find any information.
How would one hybridize Oriental Poppies?
Yes, that's how you'd do it.
Of course, you wouldn't really be hybridizing; you'd just be crossing varieties.
"Of course, you wouldn't really be hybridizing; you'd just be crossing varieties."
Crossing varieties is hybridizing. You don't have to be crossing different species or genera to be hybridizing. In fact, I think that most of the commercially available F1 hybrid seeds are crosses within the same species.
good going, Zen Man. Give the hybridizers credit for all the different flowers which have been delveloped.
ToneBone
Mar 31, 2017
If an interspecific hybrid has an odd number of chromosomes, it is therefore sterile! A mule for example has 2n=63.
Hi ToneBone,
That is true, if an interspecific hybrid has an odd number of chromosomes, it will not set viable seed. However, that does not keep it from being useful. For one thing, it could be propagated asexually, from cuttings or from tissue culture.
And some interspecific hybrids can have an even number of chromosomes. For example Zinnia elegans (24 chromosomes) x Zinnia haageana (also 24 chromosomes) gives, understandably Zinnia hybrida (24 chromosomes) which can set viable seeds.
I am a zinnia hobbyist and essentially all of my zinnias are Zinnia hybrida with 24 chromosomes. Interspecific hybrids can have a much wider range of genetic recombination than "intraspecific" hybrids. Photos show just some examples.
ZM
