Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Plantfiles for Ensete, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
I personally have not had any luck with cardiocrinum giganteum I am guessing we are to hot in the summer months. Or I don't have a good shady area for them. I am a believer of the impossible myself. I have been told many times things will not cross pollinate only to prove everyone wrong. Some are not easy and take years to set seed but I don't see the harm in trying. I have been breeding new hybrids of zantedeschia for the past few years as well as eucomis which both have been hardy here. So far no new flowers but still a lot of plants are getting to that stage. The best way at the moment to get something completely new and unusual is through breeding. But in most cases not many people are doing this either lack of knowledge time or effort. But the potential for very new things are all around. I try to put pollen on very different plant I usually stay in the same genus or family but go for extremes. Like the orchidantha pollen on a banana or musella on a ensete these crosses have potential to be possible. I am wondering if any of you have seen were Thiala is on a family chart? I would like to do breeding with this group and I know it is closely related to Cannas I have tried to put pollen on both but am wondering if their are other plants more closely related to thiala than cannas? Does anyone know on this I need to do more research myself. As for seeds and plants. I don't mind at all ship people things specially the tons of extras I never mess with but time is the biggest problem with me usually spring is a blur and summer stressful lol. But I do like to help out specially when testing hardiness or helping someone get their TC abilities going. This helps me know the range the plants have for hardiness as well as gives me a person that may one day do personal TC for me on some plants. As for breeding plants it is one of the most exciting and interesting things I have ever done in my life. The trick is to breed enough stuff that every day is exciting and new. It may take 1 to 5 years to see the results or reap the rewards but when you have a lot of different things going at once you will find that the time flies and the seedlings you were once working with are mature plants and that you now have seedlings from them growing. What I try to do is picture a plant I want usually its a huge colorful alocasias then I try to find the parents that can give me this hybrid if they don't exist you may have to make the parents to get the one your really after. The purple canna I have is a perfect example everyone said purple is not in Cannas and will never be. I know its not the greatest purple but it does have purple in it and that maybe all I need to make a whole new spectrum of cannas.