Hi Smorz...What I got out of it when I looked it up is 'Black Hills' is a hybrid of 'Green Gold x unknown', and that 'Green Gold' itself is the sport from a 'Fortunei'.

Cheers,
Don B.

EDIT: I also have the same understanding as you, that hybrids are seedlings of crosses. I'm guessing that the pollen parent for Black Hills was unknown, which is why they don't have the info pertaining to the pollen parent.

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Mon, Aug 4, 14 at 2:36

Ohhh... ok I see I managed to just confuse myself when I looked it up, Thank you very much Don!

"I was hoping to use it as a pollen donor but the pollen was visibly weak... and what little pollen I did collect did not take on one single cross."

The pollen may have been okay even though the pod parent you were placing the pollen on didn't set seed. You should try it several times before you conclude that the 'Black Hills' pollen is no good. Make sure the temp is below about 80 degrees when making the cross and that the pollen hasn't been rained on. There are a few other "tricks" to getting the pollen to work also.

I too, am confused on the term, "hybrid" and the way it is used on myhostas.be. Sometimes they say, "John Smith x op". Sometimes, they say, "John Smith x Mary Jones". Sometimes they say, "hybrid". Do they just not know (they lost track or it was a volunteer) which hosta was the pod parent, so they, "hybrid"?

bk

Yes, bkay. They will sometimes say Hybrid when they are unsure of the parentage of a particular cross. Sometimes they just say "hybrid of William Lachman" when it's either an Open Pollinated cross or one that the hybridizer is unsure of. Sometimes hybridizers make mistakes or lose a tag and are unsure of the pollen parent.

Almost all of the plants in Hosta gardens are either Hybrids or Sports. The exception are plants that are species like plantaginea or kikutii or ventricosa or montana. Species breed true from seed. Hybrids do not. In other words if you cross plantaginea with itself you will get lots of little plantaginea plants. If you cross Niagara Falls with itself you will not get Niagara Falls.

Steve

just saying it another way ....

a hybrid is a cross ...

if you know the cross.. both parents you would write it like this:

momma X daddy ....

if a bee does it.. it OP ... open pollinated ...

i never heard nor thought about it.. but steves theory is as good as any ... as to why you would introduce the word hybrid into it all .... i suppose it implies there was some action.. other than a bee or a bug ...

enough on that ... back to pollen ... it has a very limited life.. on the plant ... we can be talking hours ... and if you are doing this say .. after dinner.. and the flower opened at the crack of dawn ... there is a very good chance.. the pollen is spent ... and on the same logic.. the momma might not be receptive ....

ken