Not one seed pod the whole season until now. Of course I'm going to chop all the branches off so they won't mature. At least I do have one pod on a small Creamsickle so I might winter that one over inside. Maybe it's a good thing so I won't be tempted to start too many seeds over the winter. I still have some brug seeds stored in the fridge that I was planning on starting in a couple months.
Karyn
I too have new pods on some of my brugss, and those babies are getting dug up and moved into the greenhouse. I have found that if the pods have reached a fairly big size, they won't fall off when I move them.
Karyn, have you been pollinating during the season, without luck? Or are these seed pods that just resulted with MN's assist? I played Mr. Birds & Bees on July 21 & 31, then again Sept. 3 & 9. I have pods in various stages of developments, but doubt the later ones will mature during winter storage. Jamie's Monkey Business seems to be a good seed parent...there are pods from have 3 different crosses on it. Started from a new cutting from Bren this year, the plant isn't too big & I may try to overwinter it in my unheated guest room (along with my variegated brugs), to see if that helps the seeds mature. I love seeing seed pods develop!
My largest pod is on my original brug plant, a NOID I got locally from Jim Eichner. My bad...I got distracted while pollinating several plants & failed to come back and label this one cross. I know which brugs I was using pollen from, but can't say for sure which one was used in this particular case. Poor gal is in a family way & doesn't know who the father is! lol
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
This message has been edited by Celtguy on Oct 1, 2007 6:20 PM
I find myself getting excited about some of the crosses I've made, but they were made late so they won't be mature for several months yet. Only one will be ready, before long, and I look forward to opening it up to see how many seeds I'll have. Your pod looks great, Patrick. I wonder how many gallon pots I'll need next year??? Do you think about those kinds of things? LOL!
I don't know about Patrick, but I do Shirley. I just used my last gallon pot last week. Now I am waiting for our roundup to pick some more up. It is hard to believe how many I go through. Have you tried using the for your seedlings. I understand they come in qt. and gallon and up sizes?
I've never grown seedlings through the summer in gallons, but I think I'm going to try and will dig the pots in two or three inches to help hold them upright. I have grown them for two years in a row in the same soil in three gallon pots and they are fine. It doesn't matter if they are in ten gallon pots, they still have to be watered twice a day here.
I have a pretty fair stash of pots...but the reality seems to be that the supply suddenly gets depleted. Getting more doesn't bother me as much as "where will I put all the brugs next year?!" A lot of this year's seedlings are going to be cut off at ground level & stored in water in a cool room. The potted rootballs will either go in the garage or in the crawl space under the house...that potentially doubles the number of seedling plants I'm dealing with next year.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
I was playing pollinator with some of my blooms earlier in the season but didn't get any pods. I didn't bother with the recent flushes because I figured that the plants would be cut back anyway. Except for the doubles and variegated plants they still will be chopped down. The closest brugs to this Creamsickle that were in bloom at the same time were a Milk n Honey and a Pink Butterfly. Most of my other brugs are on the other side of the yard but since it was open pollinated it could have been any of them. It might be nice if was a pink or the Trop. Sunset brug that pollinated it but time will tell. That is if the pod continues to mature once I bring it in.
Karyn
Creamsickle x Butterfly could be a good cross. Tropical Sunset from the US has some suaveolens in it, I believe. I've seen a couple of babies from Creamsickle that were good looking doubles. I hope you can grow out all of the seeds and find one or two good ones in the bunch. That would be fun. I wonder how many seeds will be in that pod.... LOL!
I hope I can get some nice babies. I've only grown seeds from a cross that had a double parent once before. Out of about 10 seedlings that I kept only one was a double. Knowing what brugs can be crossed with each other is something that I know almost nothing about. I really should educate myself on the subject. I just grab whatever happens to be blooming at the same time and try. Maybe that's why I get so few pods. lol
Karyn
I don't have anything blooming that's 'special' enough to cross-pollinate. All of my really good named brugs are too small and not flowering yet, but I can wait...
And I learned something this year about seeds... I got some seeds last year from a generous bruggie and raised them with some success. But the seedlings were nothing special - because their parents weren't. It was a good exercise for me and I learned a lot, so I'm not sorry I did it, but from now on I'm going to invest in the best cross seeds I can find. It takes a great deal of time and effort (not to mention patience)to grow brugs from seed, so it might as well be spent on seeds that at least have the genetic possibility of maturing into something special. And oh, the possibilities...
I also like the idea of breeding to another type of plant so, despite all the evidence to the contrary, I'm going to focus some of my time on that. Wish me luck!
Karyn, I wish you luck with your seedpod. Maybe she will hold on for ya. Be interesting to see what you get.
I have about 30 some seedlings growing right now and more still sprouting. No clue where I will put them all eventually lol. I like to use very small 5 oz. plastic dixie cups when they are little seedlings, then bump them up to 20 oz plastic cups. I run out of small pots too easy with all my passie cuttings etc. Then I have to go to gallon size from there. Can't wait for my blooms to get going. I got a ton of pollen in the freezer waiting. Hopefully something will take. Found out last year that if I raised the humidity around the plant after pollinating, it took better.
I'm still the unsuccessful pollinator,though I've not given up.
so if it takes...how long till you see that it takes?seems the flowers drop off then the stem drops off.I came close to sucess in 2004,but was an october pollination on charles and the pod dropped off & don't even remeber how long till it showed.but they told me it likely would not make it due to how late in season.
Joy, my limited experience seems to indicate there's variation in how long it takes to know whether your pollination is a success...mostly because while some cultivars drop their calyx & flower stem (pedicel) soon after the withered corolla falls off, others hold them longer, then shed them. If the pedicel & calyx remain in place at least 7-10 days beyond corolla drop, I expect there's a good chance a seeds are beginning to develop. Obviously, if the pedicel fall off, that's the end of story for that pollination effort.
If there is a developing seed pod, it's hidden for awhile inside the calyx...nature's way of protecting it. I've read that some brugs will retain the calyx for a long while, but on others it dries up and/or falls off earlier. If I see that condensation is building up inside a calyx several days after the corolla has fallen off and/or there's evidence of earwigs hiding out in the calyx, I sometimes carefully tear away one side of the calyx. At that point, I can see the seed pod that's beginning to develop. The advisability of doing this is questionable, but in my climate I haven't seen any negative results.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
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