Pollen collecting

General Discussion
1

This is my first time on the forum. I just started hybirdizing this year and have one hip about to harvest and several others which will mature later on with a cross of Comtesse de Provence and Francis Dubreuil. The reason I used these two was because I thought it would be an interesting cross and also because Comtesse is so easy to set hips and Francis has such fertile pollen. I don’t know if there are seeds in the hip yet or if they will germinate but it looks good so far. One has to start somewhere. Anyway my question is I have been trying to use other plants for pollen and am having trouble getting pollen from them. Either they don’t have any or not much or my procedure is not very good. If you could please tell me how you dry your pollen after you collect it. Also has anyone ever used Darlow’s Enigma for a pollen or seed parent? I just found a small hip with three seeds in it at the bottem of my plant so it must be able to set hips and possibly have fertile pollen. Thanks

Patrick

2

It isn’t always perfectly consistent from one variety to another… but usually, collecting the anthers just before or just after they’ve begun to shed pollen has given me good results. The right time for that is generally from the night before the flower opens to the first day of opening, but for some roses (such as Darlow’s Enigma) I haven’t yet perfected the method to get great yields of loose pollen. It could also be influenced by other things like weather, though, so your results may vary.

I let my anthers dry about a day (though sometimes a bit longer if I forget about them) on small plastic lids, then I sweep them into little zipper-sealed bags and store them in the deep freezer.

Best of luck!

Stefan