What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Hi guys,

I was mucking around in the greenhouse a couple of days ago and thought I'd have a go at pollinating a few Utrics. I'd never tried before and had been told by various growers that it can be very difficult to fertilize the flowers.

Anyway, several of my U. dichotoma forms, U. beaugleholei and U. uniflora pots were in flower so I thought I'd try a few crosses to see what would happen.

I crossed the U. beaugleholei with a couple of the dichotomas and vice versa as well as U. uniflora with a dichotoma and vice versa. I wasn't expecting too much due to what I'd heard from others.

I got home from work today and went straight out to the greenhouse and noticed that all of the U. beaugleholei and dichotoma that I'd played around with had dropped their flowers. Each had a noticable swelling to the ovaries as well. As yet, the U. unifloras have not responded.

So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. As yet I'm unsure whether I have actually cross pollinated the flowers or just selfed them with my prodding and poking. I'm really hoping that I come up with some interesting new hybrids.

Even if I haven't succeeded in crossing them I am still very happy that these plants were so easy to pollinate. I'll definitely be trying more crosses in the future. It also means I'll have plenty of seed to pass around in the future.

Of course I'll keep everyone updated with the progress of the pods, the seedlings and hopefully the hybrid flowers.

Sean.
 
Very interesting Sean. Keep us updated.
 
So, did this ever work out? I'm curious because quite a few of my utrics have been flowering and I was wondering if I should try crossing them...Probably not as easy as Drosera.
 
It'll be interesting to see whether Sean responds to a thread from 10 years ago.
Probably not as easy as Drosera.
IMO - you're right. Other than being small, most Drosera blooms are easy to work with. Utric & ping flowers hide their reproductive parts so they're not as easy to access - although carefully chopping the flower at the 'hinge' exposes the parts. Then it's mostly a size, structure & timing issue. A number of growers on CPUK have shared hybrids they've created.
 
Well, I figured I should search the forums before I started my own thread...try to appear somewhat knowledgeable.

Okay, well, I might as well try, then, see what I come up with. I'll check out the CPUK forums and see what they've done over there.
 
Back
Top