Okay, just thought I would share these with you guys and gals in here as I know you all will love them at least half as much as I do.
First of the day...from the King of Belgium's garden we have an orange aurea.
Brugmansia aurea my favorite species
LOL, I second that Gordo! What a beautiful orange Erick!
Another deep throat look at a fine gold aurea. Goldenes Kornett....
Wow both are beautiful!
what a gorgeous orange color!
and look at that...mommy and daddy lol
Luzia
How right you a re Luzia! Goldenes Kornett has been a prolific mommy as well as daddy as you can see from these seed pods and many more in the garden....
Eric I know when my day comes when I can hold up and show off my *babies*. I will be exstatic. Cause early Spring I could not even get the seeds to sprout for me. Let alone make babies rofl.
Funny cause as a person I had no problem roflmao. Have 3 kids lol
I am looking forward to read up more of your beautiful angels Eric.
In the process learn learn and learn some more.
Spring and Fall are the best times to get seeds going with the aurea group. I have a few techniques that may help you out other than the obvious ones of make sure your mom is not also the dad... unless of course your mom is arborea which will self. With that said, some hybrids seem to be much easier than others to set seed with for beginners. One thing is for certain, not enough light or moisture and your plant will drop its pods. You can't let your Brugmansia droop too much or at all if you want to be certain of maximizing her fertility. The same thing goes when your trying to maximize your pollens fertility. I over water when the flowers are just starting and for a week or so after the crosses have been made. I never let my pod parents develop droopy leaves at any time however. Mites and other insects can also wreak havoc on any potential play dates you may have for your brugmansia and will seriously undermine your attempts to set seed or keep baby pods on if they get out of hand. Never mind the fact that some will actually enter into your seed pods and devour those little guys from inside out leaving a hollow seed coat that will never sprout no matter how plump and inviting the seed looks. Take a nice fluffy anther of a different species and wedge it inside next to the stigma of a different species though before the flower has emerged from the calyx though and change it out every so often and you should have seed pods for sure no matter how difficult the cross seems to be.
oh Eric you really got me going fast!
I am outside. I will see what I have and trust me. I am one that does 4 times a day watering in the heat of the summer . Sweating like a crazy woman. Just so the Brugs are happy.
You give me a good feeling that I can do this.
Thanks so much Eric.
With a smile ...I go outside for a while. Searching.
Love the orange aurea. GK IS quite the mom. What in the world will you do with all those seeds...............Are they all crossed with the same papa? How do you mark your crosses?
Brugie, in the picture I posted above you can see how I mark my crosses. Look to the right, you will see a label with the date on this old picture. On the opposite side of the label I put the pollen donor if I am utilizing more than one type of pollen on a tree. Now, if I don't intend to use more than one type of pollen on a tree I mark the pot with the pollen donor with a similar tag. I'm a firm believer in growing out large numbers of a cross. I'd rather grow out 500 seedlings of a single cross like G.K x King's Orange aurea than 5 crosses of a mere 100 seeds. I no other hybridizers will tell you differently, but I am what you might call a hard head. I have read up a bit on hybridizing though and some sources will tell you that anything less than 2000-5000 for your F2 crosses and your wasting your time. F1 crosses are generally done in much lower numbers 50-150. F3 is where you actually start to reduce and select. Admittedly, I don't plan on taking this approach with Brugmansia in the near future. I'd rather start out with 500 or a bit more for my F1 crosses based on my experience with fields of white in the past. Select out the 3 or 4 out of that 500 and cross them. This way, my F2 seedling crosses can still yield 2,000-5000 seedlings with room for a backcross. Thats my plan at least. I actually haven't decided which batches of seeds I want to keep for myself though to be honest. I really think we need to get serious about breeding Brugmansia as traits that are quantitative or qualitative traits need to be brought out a bit more. The way I figure it, the worst case scenario is I don't get anything descent after a few generations utilizing the parents I have chosen. What I can tell you is that I don't plan on growing more than 10,000 seedlings as I just don't have the time for more than one species in earnest. In all reality, the number will be much lower than this for this coming year which is good for me.
The orange one gives me goose bumps! ♥
Thanks Eric. I'm used to making only two or three crosses of each kind. I didn't realize you were planning on growing so many. I know that Monika has said in the past that it's important to grow every seed in a pod, but many of us don't have the room to grow that many plants and definitely not as many as you have growing there. Good luck to you. You will definitely be up to your elbows in seedlings this winter. Have fun.
Hey, if it ceases to be fun I'll stop. I am a firm believer that I've never grown enough of a cross to get everything I could out of that cross. I've definitely never allowed all of them to bloom which is another downfall. I have high hopes that I can put some of this book learning to use where it concerns hybridizing. Some of it is still beyond my financial capabilities, but it doesn't keep me from dreaming. The nice part of all of this is that once I've made my selections for my next crosses I can keep the seed on hold if I decide to engage in something else for a bit or have to move. The other thing never to forget, you can always grow out 1/2 of your seeds if you have limited room and then select and make crosses. Grow out the other half later and select and make crosses. I've finally got it into my head that even if I can only have two Brugmansia those two are going to be the best of what I like. I can make as many seeds as I want with those two and when I move again to an area where I can grow them all out then poof, I have an arsenal of seedlings waiting to explode from a cross I love rather than a bunch of seeds from some crosses I only half heartedly like. Heck, even if I could only grow out two seedlings from each of that cross that was truly worthwhile to me each year and back cross each to their parents I could stand to learn a lot once the land became available once again to grow them out. I absolutely adore the aurea species so this is where my main focus is. I've grown some doubles in color over here in Belgium, but my one true love is the pure aurea so I've kept just the best doubles for looks and gotten rid of the rest. I have a few in the arborea group I am tinkering with as well, but in the end I am putting more stock in the aurea group... at least for now. I have had some interesting developments with crosses that aren't supposed to work and that has given me enough information to know that nothing is impossible between these two groups. Albeit, it will take a bit of tissue culturing/ embryo rescue and perhaps a bit of colchicine to get something fertile... but whomever attempts to do so and thereby creates the first bridge plant will have opened a gateway to red and lavender colored aurea. Of course, another route I have been reading up on is protoplast fusion which doesn't sound much harder than tissue culture. Anther culture is another realm I hope to soon explore as it would allow you to select out a Rothkirch with only pink genes or a Goldenes Kornett that was all orange... then all one would need to do is to double the chromosomes and you would have a plant ready for breeding that could not have been achieved any other way nearly as fast. Invitro Plant Breeding is definitely something I have been investigating and will continue to do so until it no longer sounds fun.
wow... way over my head here.. LOL I am still waiting for just one bud to finally open up for me! gorgeous flowers and very informative thread, thanks a bunch! Debra
oh no ...Eric I am suppose to exchange the anther every so often? Our posts must have crossed.
It is ok. I will see. My head is spinning after reading all of what you are doing. wow.
I hope you will get a special cross that will be all you want it to be.
It is very educational. Thank you.
Great Pic of the King My Buddy!!! I need t o get some fluffy Bernstein pollen to you.
Lots of pods there. You gonna have lots of seeds to sow next spring. I will be right there with you if you need me, my friend!!!!
The King's pollen is being used by an American transplanted in Belgium. I won't be naming any of my F1 generation though as I want to get some nice colors and substance into these not to mention I want to have a heavily blooming plant that truly excels past both parents in blooming ability. I'm going for a darker shade of orange than the one you see here. I'd like to get another line going with a nice bright orange mixed in with a stellar pink and some pearl undertones.
Funny how my message didn't come out the first 2 times. Maybe I was speachless?
<---- eyes are popping out!
This message was edited Oct 14, 2008 9:18 AM
This message was edited Oct 14, 2008 7:16 PM
Breathtaking...simply breathtaking!!!
Eric, that orange looks pretty good to me. I'll take it. Just send 'em over. :)
Actually, my husband put in for a job in Brussels. Probably won't get it but ya' never know.
omg thas a luvley red bloom!!!!
OH! Awesome! The brilliance is stunning! And look at those twangers!! Eric, so enjoy your posts and trying to get some of it soaked in.... thx for sharing.. looking forward to great things from you over there! Hip Hip Hooray!