Pollinating Mallee, a variety I picked up for breeding purposes. In this case, I’m adding pollen of a red rimmed poet type, in hopes of getting a red rimmed double.
In 20210, i started making cross pollinations between daffodils and planting the seeds. it’s been a slow process, becasue I have not taken very good care of the plants, but I’m finally getting enough results to really matter. Here are some of the blooms and a link to a video I just made about the project.
Most seedlings are nice looking enough that most people would probably want them growing around the homeplace and never question their origin. If I were to grow just my best seedlings right now, I could easily sell these flowers at farmer’s markets, or anywhere really. Of the rejects, most are split cups that don’t split evenly and have a generally sloppy appearance. While the average seedling is just fine, it’s a different criteria to propagate and name something though, especially when I will eventually have hundreds, maybe even thousands to sort through and assess. For instance, there are a a lot of very nice pink cupped daffodils. Those used to not exist at all, until someone cracked the code on getting a true pink corolla. Now I have a bunch of them that could grow alongside nice commercially available varieties, but how many of those do we really need? A flower has to distinguish itself in some way.
Speaking of distinguishing itself. Look at this crazy looking thing. I haven’t seen anything like it before. Next steps, propagate and flower it to see how it performs year to year.
As flowers appear extra promising, they will be moved out to better conditions for further observation. In the mean time, they will make more bulbs to further propagation. Eventually, some of them will be available either through me or a catalogue, or both. That is a long road though. If I get something that I think will justify the expense, I can have it propagated through micropropagation. One of my patrons does that and has reached out about propagating apples and daffs by that method. Even so, assessment alone can take some years, as they need to be flowerd at least a few seasons to see how consistent they are etc.
A rose-like double seedling that develops a pink rim as it matures. One of the best so far.
This smallish pink cupped flower is a little different than the average.
Last year, this was the most promising daff I had flowered to date. This year its one flower is disorganized, with lots of tangled elements and notched petals. Otherwise, it is stunning, so hopefully the average flower will be very nice, with few messy flowers like this one.
I like this one. It has a lot of movement with the wild and wavy swept back petals and a nice big trumpet with good color.
Front view of the pink rimmed double.
Interesting one with nice rim effect.
While many of the split cup offspring come out looking messy and disorganized, I already have a handful of promising ones. I like the idea of breeding with a white split cup like this to try for a red or pink rimmed effect.
They can’t just look good, they have to perform well too, preferably without too much pampering. This one has 4 flowers already and is dividing well. Others may divide very slowly, or produce flowers sporadically or even start failing to thrive and dying out in less than ideal conditions.
Thats the report for this flowering season. there are more promising flowers that I didn’t get photos or footage of, but that is a good representation. Next year, a new wave of blooms will come out. It is a pretty fun project in that regard. A little anticipation is good. I remember checking several times a day for the very first daffodil seedling to emerge from a flat where I had planted them. My youthful enthusiasm is somewhat tempered now and for the better. Waiting for new blooms to open though, and the feeling of success when something good comes along, is something worth experiencing.
If breeding plants interests you, go for the plant that captures your imagination. The best plants for easy results are those that throw high variation. It helps if they hybridize readily with closely related species, as is the case with apples, iris and daffodils. If you look through photos on the web of different varieties and you see a large variability, then you can be sure there is a great range of possibility to be taken advantage of. More regular people should be breeding plants. It may not make you rich and famous, or immortalize you, but it is engaging, life affirming and gives us something to be invested in and look forward too. And who knows, that one small act of making a first pollination and planting the seeds may turn into something big and propagate some positive ripples out into the world.
