Selective Breeding How to's?

I have an unusual gloriosa daisy plant that appeared in my garden this year. I have let a pack of seeds self sow in this spot for years, and I would like to know how to save the occasional more unique variations. I f I save the seed from these plants, and plant in a separate spot next year, then save seeds of the ones that have that desired characteristic, etc. for several generations? Should the unique plant be isolated with screen? Will they self pollinate? I don't know very much at all about this subject!

By gloriosa daisy..are you meaning the Rudbeckia that is related to black eyed susan?

If so, the flowers are 'perfect', meaning that male and female parts are present on the same bloom, and it can fertilize itself. The trouble is, insect pollination is the way the ovules are fertilized. This means that pollen from other flowers that is already stuck to the insect, may pollinate your bloom....resulting in yet another hybrid.

Planting the seeds away from your other rudbeckias will help deter the insects so that they may visit several other species between those plants. Don't screen them though...you need the bugs to transfer pollen.

In theory, seeds saved should get you some of the same type plants though, and you should, in time, be able to dehybridize to an open pollinated form...with veggies..(which I am most familiar)..it takes 6 to 8 years. there will be multiple variations each year, but as you already suspected, just save seeds from the ones that have the characteristics that you want.

It's a fun project, and if you've got something you want to save, it's worth a shot.

Rudbeckia, right. I don't know why I call it gloriosa daisy. Thank you for the info. Where does one learn about things like this? What would I type into google?
So rather than pull up the other plants I should concentrate on saving seed from the plants with the desired qualities?

I have noticed that there can be several different kinds of bloom on one plant. Weird!

Gloriosa Daisy is a very common name for one type of Rudbeckia...I've heard it used many times. I just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the same plant...as common names differ from one part of the country to the next.

The more info there is on this plant, the more I suspect that the mutation is enviromental rather than genetic.

There should be the same blooms on the plant if it is a new hybrid, rather than it displaying different bloom types on the same plant. Sounds like something else is causing the blooms to change.

To find botanical characteristics on a certain plant, you'll need to use the correct Latin name. I figured that the flowers were 'perfect' because they are identical and they all produce seeds...but that's something that you have to remember from flower to flower.

Try googling rudbeckia pollination requirements and then go down the list till you get some info you can use. That's the easiest way...there'll still be lots of stuff that isn't relevant, but sooner or later, you'll find a link with correct info. Use that info to google more specific things. That's how I do it.

I read about an isolation method in the Hybridizer's forum, for insect-pollinated plants. Cover the plant you want to protect and propagate with a mesh bag smaller than bees can go through. There is very cheap black nyklon mesh fabric at fabric stores. (Black seems to "disappear" best froma distance.)

Now you can either learn to hand-pollinate, or buy a large amount of mesh (or maybe a roll of floating row cover spun fabric.

One evening, cover all the OTHER plants that might cross-pollinate with the plant you want to propagate.
The next morning (or after the bees have all gone to bed or at least flown away), remove the mesh bag form the few plants you want to propagate. After they've been polinated, cover them again and uncover the rest of your bed.

You can cover and uncover a whole plant , just one branch, or a bunch of plants, depending on the size of your mesh bags.

The person who taught me this (Zen-Man) used thin yarn to stitch the mesh together. I think the mesh size was around 10-12 per inch.

Post #5858865 and the previous post.

Corey