Fertility of lilies...

Hi,
I planted some oriental and orienpet lilies. Such as "Arena", "Chambertain", "Scheherazade" among others maybe even asiatics. What I am wondering is, are any of these sterile? Can I mate an orienpet with an oriental or asiatic? I have heard about embryos not forming completely and using hormone rescue techniques but what I do not know is what kinds are compatible, what kinds produce the slow or fast germinating seeds, etc.

Good day,
intercessor

Schez is pretty much sterile from everything I have read and my own efforts with it. In general, you will need to know the ploidy (chromosome count) usually referred to as 2n (diploid), 3n (triploid), 4n and some are described as just being polyploid). Use higher ploidy pollen on equal or lower ploidy lilies. Your best luck will be by keeping your pollinations within the same division, eg oriental on oriental. Many orienpets are triploid or tetraploid. The "rescue" technique is called "embryo rescue".

Hi,
I did a search on google but didn't seem to come up with much info. Does anyone out there know the chromosome count for the various divisions? Asiatic,Oriental,Trumpet did I miss any? Then you have the hybrids.

Thank you for the info,
intercessor

Intercessor, the chromosome count depends on the lily itself, not the division. EG> There is Black Beauty, Tetra Black Beauty, 4N Black Beauty, all diff. ploidy counts. Tres involved. Some you can see the diff. by eye, but to get a real to be sure description, you need to check under a microscope.

I've been trying to change some of my diploids to tetras. So far have managed with CT. King, Maureen, Prairie Sky. Can't remember the others. One I keep failing with is pumilum. I use Surflan.

Have not tried any embryo rescue but have done TC.

Inanda

I think the best advice I can give you is to keep good records. At the least record the cross (pod parent X pollen parent) and record whether the cross is successful in producing seeds. Also record if the seeds are successful at germinating. That way you will get a pretty good idea of which are fertile and not waste time repeating crosses that fail. Many of the professional lily growers (for example, the Lily Garden) will specify the ploidy of their lilies in their catalog.

So two orientals may have different chromosome counts? Is there anyway to know what the offspring will have, or is it random?

intercessor