OK…the pix are badly out of focus, dunno how to focus this camera (and TBO I can’t be bothered fiddling with it right now!!!).
Here is the flower before doing very nasty things to it this morning (ummm…maybe I should have waited to let it open a bit more, but I am pretty sure it’ll be right!):
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Here is the “stripping job” done:
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After pollen was applied I loosely plonked the hat on for the purpose of taking this shot:
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Last step is to move the clip across so it pushes against the receptacle edge, and … if ya can get it to “angle in” slightly as in this picture it provides an even better fit!!
If you look at the bottom of the triangle below the clip, you can see I ripped the point out of the triangle to give a shorter cover to get better clearance from the vegetation below, in this case (not always necessary, depends on how long the peduncle is).
You might be able to see that this is not a fully closed covering, air can circulate inside the hat, at least to some limited extent. At three days, when covers are removed, the female parts have never looked dry and scorched, and the receptacle is happy and green, no hint of fungus or heat damage. At least that has been my experience in my climate.
I am amazed how secure this simple set up has proved in the climatic conditions of my location:
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If I have say 15 pollinations to do, I pre-make 15 hats, all pre-clipped and labelled with the marker, and put them all in my shirt’s top pocket, and then go to the rose and plonk them on, one at a time, as I pollinate each flower.
Once organised, this might prove a surprisingly very small effort for the gain in very rainy climates where one does not have the luxury of greenhouses.
…
This certainly looks like it works-the focus might not be great, but seeing through the somewhat opaque paper is great!
It is very late in the season here to be pollinating, but in any case I want this cross, so I’ll follow-up with shots of the same thing upon removal of the hat in 3 days time, and then hopefully in a few months time to see if it set a hip, it would be nice if it does!
3 days is up!
Hmmmmmm…it didn’t rain and there was no wind to speak of during the time that this hat was on. Yesterday, I got a hose out and sprayed the whole rose down, and sprayed water directly onto this hat, to sorta compensate for the lack of insult it had put up with naturally…LOL
Here it is, a few minutes ago. The paper is now not as translucent as it originally was, due to the exposure to the outdoor elements. That’s why you can’t any longer clearly make out the “SUN” word which did remain printed on the back side of the hat…(you might just be able to make out rust marks on the paper clip…not a problem, the clip may be reused over and over again):
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Here is a close up after the cap was removed (duuugh… I finally worked out the macro setting on this cheap and not so nasty camera!!!):
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And yes, this momma rose is my Blue For You T-budded plant, sitting in soil, finally!
Congrats, George! Aren’t macros NEAT?!
Duuuuhhhhh!!!
Messing around with camera… YUP I have too much time on my hands this Sunday morning!
Here it is today (~2 weeks later):
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I’m not excited about it… a few weeks back to my amusement, I found a hip on another tetraploid rose bursting with exogenous seed and swelling up at about the 2 months mark, then a few days later the hip plus its stem thumbed its nose at me, turned a sad “I wanna die please-type yellow” and the rest… well that’s history…so whateva!
The hip didin’t look much different today…green, slightly more swollen, but not swelling enough to get me thrilled… so I got suspicious.
I pulled it off the bush opened it and… it had no seed in it!
LOL!