Outhouse Delight

dmi188 · Post by **dmi188** » Jul 10, 2007 9:48 am

Anyone have any experiences hybridizing this one? Mine is sending up its first scapes!

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Jul 10, 2007 12:15 pm

Tony Avent told me that he really didn't intend to introduce this plant, its value was the unusual gene contribution value in breeding not as a beautiful landscape plant.

You may find some strange seedlings that may be of value in subsequent crosses with other plants.

Mary Chastian told me that some of her valuable breeding stock did not come from the first cross but from back crossing, etc leading to something that puts off a lot of good results down the road.

Benedict himself did a lot of this type work.

So, make a cross then cross the babies with other things in other ways even though the first cross doesn't impress you.

dmi188 · Post by **dmi188** » Jul 10, 2007 12:48 pm

Thanks! Certainly it is not a beautiful plant! I have looked at it, and passed it on for several years at Wade and Gatton. This year I got it. Hoping to see something of interest come from it down the road.

ademink · Post by **ademink** » Jul 10, 2007 11:16 pm

You don't say?

Jaspersail · Post by **Jaspersail** » Jul 12, 2007 1:02 pm

Denise,

My experience has been that it's really fickle about pollen. I've done lots of crosses on it that never took... Not sure if it's a ploidy thing or what. Just keep trying lots of pollen parents or make a pollen "cocktail" with your favorite pollen parents mixed together. If you have pycnophylla, try that--it seems to work on almost everything (and I know I got seeds from that cross).

--John