I have a pot with several different (common) hoyas in them. I have my first seedpod!!! do I need to do something special?
Look, my first seed pod
When it's ripe, and just about to burst open...plant the seeds...or send them to me and I will grow them out for you. What was blooming at the same time?
Wow! That is very cool. What a lovely colour it is. Reminds me of the purple beans I grew in my veggie patch one year.
Sandy
I think it is from this one.
Very cool rylaff. Keep us posted on your experience with the pod and the seeds!
Ann
Why don't you get seed pods everytime they flower? I didn't know hoya's did this.
This is a first for me too. I had no idea.
I knew it happened, but I have never been so blessed myself even though I have many hoyas outside year round. Guess I just don't have the right kind of moths or something. Ha
I think you are supposed to tie a nylon stocking or something over the pod to catch the seeds if the pod opens.
Carol .....what is the procedure for that....or is there one?
Marcy
What do you mean "right kind of moths"?
Well, whatever kind of moth or bug that is needed to pollinate the flower to get the pod....I must not have them here.
Marcy
Oh, I didn't realize that a something needed to polinate the flower to get the pod. I assumed that since it had flowered it was polinated. I have alot to learn.
Yes, that is what bees do for most flowers and trees, however certain plants need a certain type of insect to be able to get the pollen where it needs to go on the flower, and hoyas appear to need a specific type of insect. Some say it is moths since their flowers smell the best at night.
Marcy
Well, mine will never do this then since I keep them in a screened in porch. Thanks for the info.
The flowers can be pollinated by many insects... very often it is ants that carry the pollen around searching for the honey...like the bees, moths, birds...
Carol, I read something you said about a person running around your place with a needle. Can I assume that crossing hoya is possible without critters? And where can I find out more about it? Any infor would be great. -joanne
Oh boy, joanne... Yes, Ed Gilding travels around with a needle in his pocket which he whips out to pollinate one thing with another. Did a wild ginger cross when here which took and I am hoping for blooms next year.
Anyway...he uses a needle, Michael Miyashiro used a cats' whisker. It is NOT easy but can be done and I have NO idea where there are any instructions. In the first place...if there ARE instructions, they would reference inner parts of the flower...so knowledge of those parts and how to find them would be necessary. Maybe Ann Wayman has something written up in her vast library of knowledge....
OH, Annnnnnnnnnnnne?
Well, I don't sew (I glue) but I do have a cat............. Krimson Queen is blooming now and pimentielana is due to open any day.......... Here kitty kitty...........
What the heck, it won't hurt to try and I might get lucky. -joanne
This message was edited Aug 22, 2006 10:58 PM
I've also been using a cats' whisker, but so far no luck at all...
Christina
O.K. I'll fall for this one! Yes I do know about pollinating hoyas, I've seen it done several times, but it's something I don't do. What in the world would I do with 10,000 hoyas? or more! I have seed pods on about 10 plants in my greenhouse right now (all from flies and bumble bees) and intend to close my eyes, grit my teeth and throw them in the trash. For those of you trying a cats whisker, it is much too big to fit into all but the largest of flowers, like the Ereostemmas. Even most needles are too large. If I were going to try to pollinate hoya flowers I would use a tiny little quilting needle with a silk thread tied through the eye (that's so if you drop the tiny little needle you can "maybe" find it again). The pollinia of a hoya is the little things that sit at the base of the stigma (the ovaries that stick up from the very center of the flower) They appear as little brown specks at the ends of tiny little open scissors that point out away from the center. When most of us think of pollinating a flower we think of pollen dust. Hoyas do not have pollen dust, they have what is called pollinia which is soft and fleshy. You don't dig these out, you very gently stroke them with the side of the tip end of the needle and they will literally jump onto the end of that needle, or whatever your using, and almost immediatly cross and cling to the needle. Realize now, that this pollinia is so small that you probably won't be able to see it with the naked eye, so you're kind of guessing whether you actually have something or not. A good magnifying glass will help tremendously especially if you have someone else to hold it so you don't accidently drop the needle. Let's say you now have the pollinia on the end of the needle. What are you going to do with it? Where are you going to put it? In each of the 4 spots where there is still a pollinia there are also channels, Ed Gilding calls them guide rails and that's exactly what they are. Lay the tip end of the needle ever so gently into one of these guide rails and very carefully slide it out. The pollinia should remain and if all goes well, will automatically work its way to where it belongs. It's best to use another umbel of flowers on the same plant as that is probably your best chance for success...and that's what insects do. There's normally only about 1 chance in a million that two different species will cross no matter how many of your plants are in bloom, but it does happen occassionally, and almost always with species in the same section. If man intervenes, all kinds of things can happen which leads to bigeneric hybrids that are like mules...they can't reproduce.
I've attached a photo of Hoya rigida because it is one of the best flowers to show the corona, stigma (overies) and pollinia sacks..
Joanne, if you need any more instructions, you're not very far from me. Come for a visit and I will show you exactly how to make thousands of hoya plants to take care of.
Annie W.
I see I scanned my photo in upside down. I'll try again.
Annie
I'm with Annie...hybrids are curious. Neat when a pod is 'Wild' just for the heck of it....a good experiment. Fun.
Hoya taxonomy is in a big enough muddle without dragging into it hoards of hybrids. Michael Miyashiro...as much as I like him and admire what he has done with growing, and developing some magnificent hybrids...also distributed the 'others' as gifts, extras and bonuses...without knowing what a muddle they would cause. We have, in circulation many hybrids posing as species, misnamed and muddying up the waters....and they differ from one another in so many minute ways, they are not worth growing out. But, if everyone is like I am...we hate to throw out a plant so we grow it...and them...and ALL of them.
I have 12 acres of jungle and a gazillion trees. It is no skin off my teeth to let them grow and flourish...and if they don't... OH WELL. Maybe, in one of my growings out, there is a REALLY UNUSUAL hybrid...I might persue publishing it... And if it doesn't have a name...it will not be distributed.
Just my humble opinion...when Ed make a cross between H. lacunosa and H. archboldiana (hello?), I could really get into it!!!! Pigs will be flying then....LOL....
That is so interesting. A lot of work but very neat.