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desirai_gw

Can you breed columbines?

Desirai
10 years ago

Columbines are one of my absolute favorite flower. Here's some I got today! Can I breed them with each other and get new colors?

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Comments (5)

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    well ... of course you can..

    that is how someone came up with these cultivars ....

    how its all done.. i dont know what to tell you ...

    but that my experience with C ... is that they usually regress backwards to the more simpler forms.. when left to their own devices ... the red species state of CO state flower.. and what i call the popsickle purple one ...

    to move forward ... you would have to research the genetics.. insure they are not sterile .... and be out there making viable named crosses .. near dawn.. to beat the bees ... and with jeweler tags to keep track etc ...

    or all that said.. wing it.. and just have fun ...

    when breeding for flower.. the downside is.. that you have to wait half the season.. before you find out what your result is ... of course.. some might suggest.. that is half the fun... where am i going with this ... lol

    sure.. you can do it.. go for it ... keep us apprised of how it all goes ...

    ken

    ps: i have had some derivation of a C in my garden for 20 years ... love em ....

  • geoforce
    9 years ago

    Traditionally, one opens a flower before it is fully mature, and removes all the anthers then isolates it (generally in a cloth bag or such) to prevent unintended pollination. When the stigma of that flower becomes receptive, pollen from a flower which has been similarly isolated to prevent contamination with other flowers' pollen is transferred to the receptive stigma, and the isolation bag reattached. If a seed pod develops, it should be your desired cross.

    This process will destroy many of your flowers if you are not very proficient at it, so do it on several to be sure some survive. If your cross is effective, you don't kill all the target flowers, you prevent pollen contamination, and the pollen is compatible, you should get the desired hybrid seed.

    A less sure but simpler method is to just swab the pollen from one flower to another, and collect the seed. A lot of it will be from selfing of the pod parent if not self-incompatible, and stray pollen from outside may also fertilize some of the ovules, but you can still get the desired cross in there also.

    George

  • paul_
    9 years ago

    â¢Posted by geoforce z7a SE PA
    "If your cross is effective, you don't kill all the target flowers, you prevent pollen contamination, and the pollen is compatible, you should get the desired hybrid seed. "

    Keep in mind, however, that just because you have obtained the desired hybrid seed, that does NOT mean that the offspring will demonstrate any hybrid traits. It is quite possible that all of that first generation of offspring (referred to as the F1 generation) will bloom out resembling one parent or the other with no hint of the second parent's traits being evident.

    A discernible blend of the original parental traits is typically not evident until the F2 generation (the grandchildren if you will) -- which you get by crossing members of the F1 generation with each other using the method George explained above.

    Even with the F2 generation, it is possible that little variation might result. Much depends on just how different the original parental traits were, as well as the interplay of dominant, co-dominant, and recessive traits -- not to mention the possibility of genetic mutations.

  • moliep
    9 years ago

    Great technical advice, above.

    I've not tried to hybridize columbines but recall that when growing some varieties from seed at my first house, they all reverted back, as Ken said. I'm sure that part of my problem was the fact that my mother gave me some of her columbines that she had grown for over 40 years. In time, all my columbines looked like my mom's original plant.

    And my experience makes me wonder ... do you have a greenhouse where you can propagate these, rather than doing it in the garden?

    Molie

  • Desirai
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    thanks for the info.

    I have been learning to breed my own zinnias. they are easy and fun to breed. columbines and zinnias are my fave flowers, I wanted to breed columbines too.

    I will just cross them all and collect seed and see what happens, he he :)