Up Dated January 2007

The most difficult part of hybridizing double begonias is, without doubt, getting the pollen on the male flower.  Stamens are not often seen on the male as progressive breeding has managed to turn the stamens to petals. To secure pollen bearing flowers, cuttings taken late June or early July are, after rooting, potted into pots no bigger than three and a half inches. These are grown in the usual way and never fed. The male flower is allowed to form and sometimes it will grow stamens and of course pollen. Some varieties will throw much more pollen than others. We have in our Society three members  who have been successful in the breeding of new varieties. Robert Ramsay of Tullibody, who gave us amongst others, Fiona Ramsay. The late John Murray of Comrie who bred Lyndsay and Kirsty Murray and Danny Sutherland from Dunfermline.    Danny won first for a seedling at Ayr show in 2002. Sadly Danny died on the 14th January this year.

Fertilisation is best done on a sunny day in September when the pollen is ripe. This can be established when a tap on the male flower allows some pollen to fall onto the petals. The pollen can then be gathered with a very soft artists brush and transferred to the pistil on the female recipient. This should be done several days in succession. The petals of the female flower will fall off in a week to ten days and the pod will begin to swell. Tie up the pod to a split cane and tie an open paper bag underneath so that if the ripening pod falls off or starts to split then anything that does drop will only fall into the bag. It is important to put the details of the cross on the bag. When the pods are ripe they can be placed, still in the paper bag, on a window sill for a week or ten days when the pod will burst and the seed will fall to the bottom of the bag. After cleaning, the seed should be kept in a refrigerator, until required for sowing.

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