Hello everyone, Greetings from Peterborough Ontario Earlier this summer I salvaged 2 Hibiscus plants from a garbage container at a local distributors.They were almost done for but with a little care I was able to restore them back to vigorous healthy specimens. My two plants are blooming everyday. (usually with 3 or 4 new blooms) From what I have read up on these beautiful plants, it seems that I have a red one with single flowers and a pink with doubles. I'm wanting to pollinate them to get some seeds. I read up on a site on how to do this with a brush, seeing our insects prefer to go about pollinating other types of plants that are more appealing to them at this type of year. So now for my questions: Is it possible to pollinate flowers with pollen from flowers from the same plant? Or must I use the pollen from the flowers on the other? Thank you Al
It's done all the time. Get a fine camel hair brush and collect pollen from a plant that is producing pollen and give it to another that is receptive. We do it with Anthurium species all the time but that is a bit more complicated since Anthurium produce near microscopic flowers. The spathe you see isn't a flower but is the shield for the flowers on the spadix.
Thank you for your reply, I,ve had no problems using the brush . My question was ,"Must I use flowers from different plants?" or "Can I pollinate using flowers from the same plant?" Thanks Al
Yes, you can pick up the pollen from the same plant in most cases. However, the strain will remain stronger if you bring pollen from other sources. If you use rain water and slightly dampen the brush you'll collect the pollen more easily and then take it right over to the receptive plant.
