Will they cross breed?

[JamieB]

As I plot out how I want to lay out the flower garden, I think of the various flowers and bulbs I want. I know with flowers that make seeds, the traits of the pollenator plant mix with the traits of the mother plant. What about bulbs? For example, if my bees carry pollen from a Dutch iris to a holland iris, how does that work? I’ve seen that the bulb flowers make the like seed pod thing at the base of the flowers, but other than buying and planting bulbs, I don’t know Mitch about them. I know iris grows by tubbers/ rhizomes, and that can be split to form new plants. Some bulbs divide. But from the rootstock, do they retain just mother plant dna/ traits, or would cross pollination from a different color variety get mixed in. Or do I need to learn how to grow them from seeds?

 

[alp]

From rootstock, the new plants will be exactly the same as mother plant, with exactly the same DNA. If insects cross-pollinate plants of the same family, or you cross-pollinate them, the DNA of the new seeds will be from a gene pool of the two parents (or more - we have heard of some very unfortunate split eggs with DNA with two different men!). The new plants will bear traits from both donors. But if you try to grow an apple tree from apples which have a big gene pool, you could have very different results and instead of getting a Pink Lady, you might end up with crab apple .. more unpredictable than some other species.

 

[JamieB]

I’m thinking iris, lilly, and tulips. Typical flower “bulbs” I’ve got no clue what most of the ones I have are, but I’d like to try for some nice mixes.

 

[alp]

You might need a plant lesson: Do you know what pollen and stigma are? You get a pen tip and rub it to give it a bit of static and gently brush the pollen and move the pollen to the stigma in the flower of another plant.

Now look at this pic

The yellow powdery bits (stain your clothes badly and can't be removed, a bit like turmeric) is the pollen. and the black stick is the stigma.

Follow this video, and you can mess about. Fun

I only learnt about this malarkey when I taught my son GCSE biology - i.e. I read the book and then explain it to him.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+cross+pollinate+lilies

Do it on a warm day and

1) remove all the pollen of the receiving plant.
2) Only do it when the stigma is wet - it's like when a woman is receptive
3) daub the pollen on the stigma and just keep fingers crossed.

You can google the same for irises and tulips on youtube. Have fun!

 

[JamieB]

I know it’s their reproductive organs, I just didn’t know if they made seeds, or if the new bulbs that form would be the mixed genes, or asexual.

 

[Owdboggy]

If you transfer pollen from one Tulip hybrid to another and sow the resultant seed you will get something (eventually, after about 7 years or so) which could look like either parent, or not. Hybrid tulips are the result of hundreds of years now of crossing and they have a large gene pool to call on.
The same applies to Narcissus (Daffodils), Crocus, Scilla and all other bulbs where they have been bred for years.
Sometimes the resultant plant is sterile, but not always.
Where two members of the same species are crossed, and where there is a fairly small gene pool, then generally what you get is something which is within the parameters for that species. So Hyacinthella ciliata will only cross with a different Hyacinthella ciliata and produce a bulb which will grow in a Hyacinthella ciliata.

 

[JamieB]

Ok, so I can try, and see if I get results after 7 years. No problem! I’ll just cross two of like types, collect seeds and plant the seeds. I’ll see if anything comes of it or not. I’d love to be old and grey, and point out to the grand kids which plants I grew from seeds! Hopefully by then, the bulbs will have filled in so thick there’s no space for weeds! Since mint is so notorious for spreading like crazy, I’ll try filling in the open area with mint. It’s got road all around it, so it can’t take over the entire 10 acres, but if it did, I’d have one hades of a mint farm! Lol, we plan to put cows for personal food in the back field, I may start a trend of minty fresh milk! Nah, on a serious note, the mint is welcome to spread. I’ll just keep it trimmed/ mowed back to keep space for flowers.

 

[alp]

I hope your grandkids will say THANK YOU to you!

 

[JamieB]

So do I! So looking at the bulbs I’m digging up today, I think it already happened. Tulip bulbs, then a few tiny ones 1/4 the size of a corn kernel. I’m out of soil! I’ll have to go buy a bag from the store. Won’t be as good as my compost mix. I’ve got another pot filled, and still have one cluster of tulips, a bunch of the I Don’t Knows, and some grape hyacinth. The I Don’t Knows May be rain lilly? Star of David? Hence why I’ve titled it that. Nice green shoots. I’m bound to find more of everything as they pop up. As for grand kids, I’ve already got one step grand daughter, if they come out to visit one of these blooming seasons, I’ll have her pick out two flowers, I’ll cross them, and grow the seeds for her. By the time she’s old enough to appreciate flowers, more than just little kids”pretty”, it should be blooming.

 

[Owdboggy]

Grape hyacinths (Muscari) are thugs of the first water. I dig up and throw away hundreds of them every year. They choke out anything growing near them.
If you buy the named forms with white or pink or bicoloured flowers they will revert to the standard blue ones (or cross with them and the more vigorous blue outgrow the coloured ones).

 

[JamieB]

Works for me, I’m looking for thick low growth.