To begin with I must say their are 4 different kinds of people who collect plants. Their are people who are mild collectors, Then crazed collectors who collected all they can. Scientific people botanist who collect for science, Then their are hybridizers. Now you were probably one of the others before you were a hybridizer. For me I was a crazed collector who turned into a hybrizider.
The thing with collecting plants is you will find that at some point you will have everything on that wish list and then the fun ends and your collecting days are done. This is were breeding can really turn a new page in your search for new plants.
Also you may dream of plants that do not exist. Years ago I dreamed of some amazing beautiful alocasia type plants that were easy to grow and got very huge in size. I woke up and realized these plants do not exist but the potential and opportunity to create them was their.
I also found that traveling to far off countries to find new species was a bit out of hand and budget so breeding new ones is about the same as discovering new plants. It is also a very thrilling learning experience a lot of trial, error, science and pure luck all play a part in creating a new plant.
Hopefully this will encourage you to let your plants have sex which I am sure they will enjoy almost as much as you will.
Well lets see were to start. With pollination on plants you must first understand the flower of the plant you are working with. Most advanced flowers have a male and female section to the flower these go by different technical terms depending on what species you are working with. Now I will do some stuff here of combining technical terms with very simple terms to help everyone understand. We will first start with the male section. This is usually called the Male zone in aroids or araceae and in many other flowers it will be the area were a powder like material is formed. This can usually be any color but in aroids it is usually white to yellow though I have seen purple and other colors. In aroids you have a very simple type flower the male zone is on a finger like structure covered with a protective modified leaf. The leaf part is called the spath is protects the flower. The finger structure is called the Spadix the top of portion of the spadix produces the pollen.
Now for the female zone. In flowers it is usually easy to spot the female area by looking for a area with sap at the tip this is used to catch the pollen this is called the stigma. Now some are on the end of a long tube called the style. Aroids do not have a style they are a bit more primitive than that but orchids and other flowers do. This is nothing but a transport to take the pollen down to the ovary to produce seed. Now for aroids all you would have to do is remove the spathe down around the stem and at the bottom of the spadix you will see the female zone this is easy to see as their will be sap on them and they look like small unrippened berries. If pollen makes it to this are it will ripen and form berries hopefully with good healthy seed.
So to sum it up and put it in really cheep terms take the powder of one petty flower and take it to another flower in the same family. Find the area with the sap and put the pollen on it. In some cases a plastic baggy can help keep humidity up and rain off. But in some cases it can also cause fungus so watch carefully.
The following are pics of Sarah working on flowers.
