You could be the hybridizer who creates a series of miniature, everblooming gloxinias in various flower colors and leaf types.
Or crosses the jacobinias in cultivation to produce plants better suited to the window sill and home greenhouse.
Or the person who works diligently with those miniature amaryllids, the cyrtanthus, to obtain larger flowers in brighter colors.
And there’s a chance you’ll produce the first clear, bright yellow African violet or geranium in a million.
Fortunately, if you never do any of these things, you will still find the hobby of hybridizing house plants exciting.
Amateur breeders have done more with house plants than professionals—it’s a field anyone can enter, and a certain amount of success is practically guaranteed.
Several Hobbyists Of Cross-Pollinating Houseplants
Through the years, I have enjoyed knowing several hobbyists who first dabbled at cross-pollinating favorite house plants.
And led on by success or failure, they increased their efforts until today. Most of them can generally be considered professionals, even though they may not pursue this activity as a livelihood.
Albert Buell
Albert Buell of Eastford, Connecticut, is perhaps the most famous houseplant hybridizer.
He came up through the ranks, first growing gloxinias as a hobby.
His interest steadily increased, and at the beginning of World War II, when he found it impossible to buy tubers, he cross-pollinated two gloxinias that grew in his sunroom.
The rest of the story is almost legend.
The seedlings showed promising new traits, and soon Buell produced gloxinias unlike any the world had ever known.
Today, he heads one of our country’s largest firms that produce gloxinias, African violets, and the other gesneriads for mail-order customers and those fortunate enough to go in person to his greenhouses.
Uses Easy Plants
Not to belittle Mr. Buell’s results with gloxinias, some of his “secrets” include starting with a plant that cross-pollinates easily.
A plant matures seeds fairly fast, with seeds that will grow into flowers within a few months.
He chose to work with plants he grew well already but thought needed improvement and kept complete records so that even today, he knows the parentage of every Buell hybrid.
Hybridizing opportunities are all around any house or greenhouse gardener.
Mrs. Olive Lawson, a Kansas grower, produces her own hybrids through a less organized pattern than Mr. Buell, and in her own words, she says, “I have no secret as it is just fun for me.”
Her beautiful episcia hybrid, registered under the name ‘Antique Velvet,’ is of unknown parentage.
“Possibly from a seed pod that was pollinated outside by bees.
Several years ago, I purchased a stand of bees and put it on the roof of my porch, and they do a great job of pollinating.
I put several baskets of episcias outside in the shade in warm weather. Twice I have found seed pods.
They have to be carefully watched to be harvested before they drop off.”
Kusler Hybrid Beginnings
The name of Belva Kusler, from a small community in Wisconsin, is being heard more and more among begonia growers.
As an admirer of every Kusler hybrid I have seen and the owner of two of them, I asked Mrs. Kusler to share her secrets as a begonia hybridizer.
She writes, “My interest began when the twins were five years old. They are 22 now, so it was a long time ago. But unfortunately, it was winter, and I had to stay close to home.
To amuse the children, I showed them how to take a male blossom (from a begonia), bend back the petals to provide a little ‘handle’, and brush the pollen on the female blossoms.
They pollinated hundreds and then enjoyed picking the enlarged seed pods off the plants.”
“It was some years later that I decided to cross two begonias just to see what would happen.
I planted the seed, and out of more than 200 seedlings grown to maturity, I had the good fortune to get one different plant and, I thought, exceptionally good.
My hybrid ‘Anna Christine’ has been distributed throughout the United States and Canada.
This was a beginning.
My Tips On Hybridizing
Select Characteristics
“After years of hybridizing, I can pass along these tips:
For parents, choose plants with the characteristics you want to combine or modify in the offspring.
To begin with, it would be wise to select more or less ideal begonias for both parents. Then, plant the seed as soon as it is dry.
“If you have a full seed pod and normal germination, you can have hundreds of seedlings from a single pod.
If you expect not to give up your house entirely to plants, choose the most vigorous seedlings from the seed pan, and then take a cross-section of all of them, including some of the large, some medium, and some small.
Raise the plants until they are mature, their blooming cycle has been noted, and their cultural requirements learned. This generally takes 2 years or more (for begonias).
“Then, if you feel you have a unique plant, write to the Nomenclature Director of the American Begonia Society, describing the plant and its parentage.
This person will advise you as to the possibility of having your name permanently linked officially to your plant creation.
Good Parents Overused
“As for recommending begonias that would be superb parents, it is difficult because those which proved excellent have been used—and used!
The small cane, dichroa, and the diminutive rhizomatous, bouteri, are good examples of them.
I like to work with free-blooming, small-to-medium plants of easy culture. Except for my initial try at hybridizing, I always work with an aim in mind.”
Today, there are probably more African violets hybridizers than any other houseplant.
While the yellow remains elusive, hybridizers have made marvelous changes in the little Usambara violet or saintpaulia.
The Joy of African Violets, by Helen Van Pelt Wilson (M. Barrows and Co., New York), includes an outstanding discussion of genetics as applied to African violets and the development of a breeding program for them.
Gesneriad Possibilities
Interest in African violets and gloxinias has brought fame to other members of the gesneriad, and today much hybridizing is being done in this field.
One famous hybrid, gloxinia `Rosebells,’ originated by Peggie Schulz, Garden Club Editor of Flower and Garden, resulted from a cross of a slipper-flowered gloxinia (Sinningia species) with a species of the related Rechsteineria.
The new plant has desirable traits for both parents.
Other gesneriads being actively hybridized today, besides those already discussed (African violets, gloxinias, rechsteinerias, and episcias) include columneas, smithianthas, and streptocarpus.
Basic Hybridizing Principles
Remember these hybridizing basics when you begin to work with your house plants:
- Cross like plants, amaryllis with amaryllis, not amaryllis with a gloxinia.
- When the yellow or white pollen is fluffy, dry, or powdery, it is ready to be placed on the tip of the pistil, called the stigma, of the other parent. The stigma is usually ready to receive pollen when it flares out or breaks into parts. When pollination is successful, the flower soon wilts, and swelling occurs in the ovaries at the base of the flower.
- Watch developing seed pods carefully and when they turn brown or show openings, shell them into an envelope and store them in a dry, cool place until you are ready to sow seeds.
Some of the equipment you may find useful in houseplant hybridizing includes:
- Tweezers
- Small camel’s-hair paintbrush for transferring the pollen from one flower to another
- Magnifying glass to help you determine the floral parts of small flowers
- Small jewelry tags on which to write the name of your cross (seed parent first, pollen parent second) and the date; attach this to the seed parent.
If the cross is successful when the ovaries begin to swell into a seed pod, record complete information about it in a notebook.
If you are serious about producing a better house plant, establish some kind of goal.
44659 by Elvin Mcdonald