How Hybridizing Works

Hybridizing a plant is a simple, but arduous procedure: First you pick out two plants you think might make likely parents for a new variety--although there’s no way to predict exactly what kind of flower any mating will produce. You then remove a bit of pollen from the anther, or male reproductive organ, of one of the plants, and place it on the stigma, or female reproductive organ of the other, which now becomes the seed parent.

Within about two weeks, presuming the cross has “taken,” the flower on the seed parent will wither and the green stick will begin to swell as the seeds in the ovary begin to develop.

It will take about five months for the seeds to mature, at which point they are sowed, and seedlings will appear in anywhere from two weeks to two months. The seedlings are then transplanted into individual pots, and first blooms should appear within two months.