I don't understand this...

When i look up "dicentra luxuriant" bleeding heart on this site it says the propagation method can be done from seed and to sow them indoors or out...then under seed collecting it says n/a plant does not set seed, the flowers are sterile....

why collect seeds if you can't propagate a plant from them? Sorry...I'm new to this part!

You can propagate a plant from the seeds...it just won't be the cultivar 'Luxuriant' anymore. In cases like that, if you want something exactly like the parent plant, you need to do cuttings instead. You didn't quote the full statement from Plant Files here, but if you look at it you'll see that one of the things listed is "or won't come true from seed" or something to that effect. Anytime you see a named cultivar and that option is checked, the most likely reason is that the babies won't come true from seed. Most times you can still start the plant from seed but you can't guarantee that the babies will look just like the parent. Sometimes they'll be close, sometimes they might not be.

And........sometimes, maybe one in a million, they might be better!

Ok, thank you for clarifying that for me!

Be adventurous and experimental. I bet you get some really nice plants.

I wonder if PlantFiles doesn't sometimes mean that you can buy commercial seeds, produced from CONTROLLED crosses bteween two very inbred parent lines, plant that, and get exactly what the breeder intended.

But I agree: recombinations from hybrids can be interesting. There might be strong tendency to lose hard-to-breed-for traits like hugely-large blooms, or extra-profuse blooms, or very unusual forms or habits, but that's just a tendency.

But you'll get variety and some unique plants!

Everyone told me not to bother collecting seeds from commerical petunias becuase they are fancy hybrids. And I had planted the most-mongrel assortment of whatever I found on seed racks you can imagine. I collected and dried petunia seeds "for practice". Worked great. The red-pink and pale purple colors blurred together, but I got fine clear whites, dark blues and dark purples. MAYBE less profuse and dense blooms. But more fun!

There is a Hybridizers forum on DG. Check out some Zinnia photos in Zen_Man's threads. Yowsa! Zinnia forms that must have corssed with space aliens. Colors like an explosion in a paint facotry ... the only thing you can't gtet is bored.

Corey


Corey

Thanks!

>> I hybridize anything I can. I have some very nice daylilies as a result.

They seem even better candidates for hybridization than Zinnias. Such variety! But aren't lily seeds hard to start? And do they tend to bloom the first year, or do you have to have patience?

Zen-Man found a way to get two generations of Zinnias per year, AND grows them indoors with growth inhibitors.

Corey

Daylily seeds are among the very easiest to start. They usually sprout within a week or so and grow fairly quickly. Mine bloom their second year.
I LOVE zinnias! Can you point me to Zen-Man's thread if there is one?

>> Daylily seeds are among the very easiest to start.

Hunnh! SOME website or other advised incredible jumping through hoops for some kind of lily seed. I guess they were "straining at gnats".

Now I have yet another gardening ambition: startimng daylilies. Are tiger lilies the same as daylilies?

And if it's easy to colelct their seed, here comes another category for the "Free Seeds for New Bees" stash!

Hybridizers Discussion Forum
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/hybridizers/all/

Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias
(original thread) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/929238/

part 2: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/940238/
part 3: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/969046/

Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 4
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1136291/


and

Hybridizers: Does hot 90+ degrees prevent daylilies from setting pods?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1197874/

Corey

Daylilies are in a separate category from Lilies-Lilium of which Tiger Lily is one. Some people call the old-fashioned orange ditch lilies 'Tiger Lilies'. That's what I always heard them called growing up.
True Lilies are quite a bit more difficult in my experience.
Thanks for the links!

>> Daylilies are in a separate category from Lilies-Lilium of which Tiger Lily is one

Ohhh! Flower names drive me crazy. But I'll try to remember "DAYlilies not lilies".

Hope to see you in the hybridizers forum. Sometimes it's not very active and I forget to check it out.

Corey