Crinum Lilies - How To Make New Varieties at Home (step-by-step)

Learn how to create new crinum crosses, it is quite easy if you follow these steps. Tony shows the whole process. We hope some of you will consider taking plant breeding as a hobby. Let us know if you are interested in more information on this topic!
Plant breeders are an odd sort…people who are never satisfied with their results, and as such are always looking to improve even the most fabulous creation. We’ve been dabbling with crinum lilies for several years, and in this video we show one of our newest creations, Crinum ‘Razzleberry’, which is rather amazing. But we can still make it better!
Crinum flowers typically open in early evening…5-7pm for us. The first step in breeding is to remove the petals, to have good access to the male pollen (the powdery tips atop the six pink thingys), and the female pistil, the single longer thingy with a dark pink knob at the top and a bigger knob at the bottom. The male thingy is known as a stamen, comprised two parts, the filament (the pink thing), and the anther (the part with the pollen). The female parts are known as the pistil, comprised of the ovary (bottom), the style (the pink thingy), and the stigma (the sticky knob at the tip.
In breeding, the anther is removed and the pollen is dusted on the stigma of a different plant to make the cross. Then the flower is marked with a label documenting the parentage. If your cross is successful, you will have seed forming in about a month. The seed are quite large, and must be planted immediately, since they have zero shelf life. Once the seeds germinate it normally takes 4-5 years for your new seedlings to bloom. During the first several years you can evaluate vigor and growth habit, but the final evaluation can’t be made until it blooms.

Complete transcript can be found at - https://www.plantdelights.com/blogs/v...

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