Anyone ever explore test tube propagation with roses?
Anyone ever swap pollen of roses through the mail?
Slightly off the original topic, but how do you get the pollen off the Q-tip onto the stigmas? This may seem like an obvious question, but Q-tips were mentioned in the “Next Steps” handbook as a way to pollinate when the amount of pollen is small or precious - but it would seem to me that the pollen would “embed” itself into the cotton of the tip.
More on topic, “The Next Steps” has about two paragraphs on shipping pollen. It’s in the article “Handling Pollen” by Peter Harris on pg 40.
Chris Mauchline
I’ve had very good results with pollen sent through the mail – old film containers seem to work the best at least with me. And I have found that pollen stores quite well. I have gotten seeds to set with pollen someone mailed me and I then stored in the freezer for a year! Pollen keeps surprisingly well, and exchanging pollen through the mail is a great way to breed with a much wider varriety of roses without spending so much money on plants or taking up so much garden space.
Joseph