Aeonium Hybridization

[Aeonium2003]

This year there were only blooms of Aeonium 'Zwartkin', Aeonium 'Blushing Beauty', Aeonium 'Cyclops', and Aeonium Canariense 'Californicum'. I have been saving pollen in the freezer for future pollination. Aeonium Haworthii are pushing out flowers as well.

I cut off petals and anthers to prevent self pollination, and sprayed stigmas thoroughly with water. Next the stigmas were dried, and were coated thoroughly with pollen, once every day for 5 days. This will make sure that the flowers are pollinated when the stigmas are receptive. It also ensures that your cross sets good seed.

Both of the crosses will have double zwartkop parentage. It will be interesting to see how that plays out....

Aeonium Blushing Beauty - red tag
Aeonium Plum Purdy - yellow tag


The rest of the flowers will either be selfed, or will stored for future hybridization.

Aeonium 'Blushing Beauty'

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'Plum Purdy'

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Unfortunately, I don't believe I took photos of the other flowers.

At the time of pollination, Aeonium 'Blushing Beauty' crossed with Aeonium 'Zwartkin'

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A few weeks later, and the stigmas are starting to flair, and the ovaries starting to swell.
Zwartkin flower pollinated with Blushing Beauty

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Zwartkin flower pollinated with 'Plum Purdy'

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Now: the seeds are developing nicely, and all we have to wait for is for the pods to dry.

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[Epiphyte]

Your process is far more involved than mine. I basically group the bloomers together and let the bees do the work. I won't know who the fathers are but it will be fun trying to guess. But hopefully sooner rather than later DNA testing will be cheap, fast and easy.

One of my goals is variegation, so last December I tossed all my non-variegated Aeoniums up a steep slope across the street from a friend's house. I didn't want their non-variegated genes in the pool. That being said, I do have a few non-variegated Aeoniums with forms that are distinct enough to hopefully result in variegated plants that are noticeably different. For example, an Aeonium the color of Medusa but the size of reverted Sunburst.

Besides variegation, I'm also interested in selecting for the most hercuthermal (wide range of grow temps) individuals. So I'll water the seedlings during summer in order to give an advantage to any of them that aren't so interested in being dormant.

Here are my current bloomers...

Aeonium arboreum variegated
Aeonium Emerald Ice
Aeonium Fiesta (I think?)
Aeonium Mardi Gras (I think?)
Greenovia noid

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In order to facilitate blooming in my other Aeoniums and Sempervivums, I've been removing branches and offsets. I also have some of the Sempervivums high up in my greenhouse. But maybe heat is less of a trigger than day length. It sure would be fun to make a Semponium though.

One thing I never plan on doing is destroying any seedlings. I guess this is the standard practice for "serious" hybridizers, but it strikes me as completely counterproductive to the big picture of colonization of marginal habitats such as walls, roofs and trees... not to mention colder/hotter/drier/wetter climates. Any destruction of seedlings makes Aeoniums that much less adaptable to change.

[Aeonium2003]

Bees seem to be non-existant here... For the near month that the flowers have been open, I have never seen a bee. Therefore, I have to hand pollinate all the flowers to set good seed. Unfortunately, I don't have a convenient hillside. So I have to offer seedlings for postage on forums. So far, I have only offered some haworthii seedlings, which are practically weeds in my collection.
If you were breeding for cold hardiness, maybe leave the seedlings out in the frosts, and see which ones survive. I think I will have to offer some of my seed to interested parties on forums. I simply don't have enough space to keep hundreds/thousands of seedlings.

[Aeonium2003]

First results from the hybridizing proved a bit disappointing. I harvested a small pod of Blushing Beauty x Zwartkin, which yielded only one seed that looks potentially viable. However, that pod looked a bit under-developed, which may be part of it.

[Aeonium2003]

One of my Aeonium haworthii x undulatum seedling is showing lots of potential...
Hopefully I'll be able to get the variegation to stabilize.