Like to try your hand at lily hybridizing? Here’s how.
Select the flower to be pollinated and remove the anthers or pollen-producing male organs before any pollen has been shed.
Since lilies usually do not shed pollen until they start to open, it is advisable to choose buds that will open the next day and carefully remove the anthers with forceps.
To prevent insects from contaminating the stigma or female organ with pollen from other flowers, slip a 2” to 3” inch section of a large soda straw over the stigma and close by bending it over a ½” inch from the end.
Pollen from the other parent should only be applied once the stigma secretes its fluid and becomes sticky.
This is usually one or two days after the stamens have been removed. Pollination is easy—hold a pollen-laden anther with tweezers and rub it over the flower’s stigma to bear seed. Replace the paper straw to prevent future contamination.
Crossing A Late-Flowering Lily
If you wish to cross a late-flowering lily with an early-flowering variety, the pollen of the early lily must be stored until the latter is in bloom.
To do this, dry the pollen thoroughly, place it in a small glass vial, stopper it with a cotton plug, and store it in a refrigerator as far from the freezing unit as possible. The pollen will remain alive for three to four months.
A label recording the cross should be fastened to the stalk of each pollinated flower. In writing such a label, the name of the seed parent is always placed first. Thus, “testaceum x candidum” means that Lilium testaceum is the female or seed parent and L. candids the male or pollen parent.
When the lily seed pod begins to split open at the top, the seed is ripe, and the pod should be removed and allowed to dry in a paper bag.
If the season is too short to ripen some of the seed, the pods may be cut with their stems just before a frost and allowed to ripen indoors in water.
Instructions for sowing seeds are given on page 55; a diagram of a self-watering seed flat appears on page 56.
44659 by Na