I pollinate flowers when they are dropping pollen. I pollinate on the weekends,
so it seems the pollen stays fresh and the flowers receptive for at least a
week because with few exceptions I get good seed production. Something I find
interesting is that for some reason my _S.rubra alabamensis_ do not produce
pollen. I have two different clones. Neither do the plants of another Arizonan
CPer in Nogales. I think that Gordon Snelling reported the same anomoly.
Strange. But when pollinated by other plants they produce seed perfectly...
>Don't tell me you've got your pets so well trained they all flower on
>cue? :) - I know, they all raise their buds at the opening bars of the
>"Painted Desert"
Don't be silly. For reasons I don't understand fully, they far prefer Norten~o
style mariachi music. When I turn on the radio by the greenhouse, as soon as
the notes of "Jesusita en Chihuahua" or "La Negra" start up, they start
dropping pollen faster than you can say, "!Hecha le con sabor!"
Cha-cha or cumbias I could understand, but mariachi? :)
Really though, I take the lazy approach and make the hybrids and species
crosses available to me at the time. If I am limited on options, then I'll
make selfings.
B