You take the pollen from one type of plant and put it on the blossom of another type of plant that is related to it but not the same. They can be close crosses : zucinni squash X crookneck , or wide crosses zucinni squash X big max squashkins or pumpkins . I do not know what you plan on crossbreeding. hybrids is when you combine (crossbreed )2 diffierent parents and get an offspring different than either parent.cross a red rose and a white rose and get a pink rose as the result .

Just get pollen from one plants stamen and with a brush place it on the stigma of another plant of the same family (e.e. Sweet pea 'streamer' x s/p 'horizon'). You can also cross two totally differant plants. But the odds of getting a new plant are something around 1:1000. Some breeders do it though, and make loads of money.
Hope that helped.

Carol Deppes books " breeding your own vegetables"
and a second one for gardeners and farmers will be a big help to you . see if you can get them from interlibrary loans. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF CREATIVE GENETICS !!

To be successfull in breeding plants you need to study the structure or morphology of the plant you are interested in breeding. Observe. This way you will know how to pollinate them properly. Choose plants that are related to each other by genus or by family (tip: one is more successful in breeding two different plant types of the same species than in the genus level, the probability of being sucessful in producing a cross goes down as you go farther up in the taxonomic groups (genus to family).
Trivia:
Very unrelated plants/ organisms can only be bred through genetic engineering ex. Tobacco that glows in the dark by adding a gene from the firefly.

Goodluck!

so when you try to hybribize 2 lilies. to try and get a different color do i save the seed so to speak that is there after the flower or will this go down to the bulblets of the plant. I have a yellow and white i want to try to cross. And I find nothing on doing lilies (asiatic ect). Just on daylilies. Thanks for any help....I have 3 blooms so can do up yo 3 ways.

Hi!
I would like to try to cross two daylillies... Are they easy for a biginner like me?

Hi Adam,

Daylilies are easy to cross, because their flower parts are large and accessible. You will have a better chance of a knowledgeable response over in the Daylily forum. I hybridize zinnias, because they are also easy to cross, and you can see the results of your crosses much sooner than with Daylilies.

ZM

Daylilies are easy if they are compatible, but there are diploid, triploid ,tetraploid and all sorts of fertility problems. Usually tets and dips will cross only with another tet or dip. Triploids--------an early hybridizer made over 7,000 crosses once to get 22 seed pods----but it's possible--I used wild triploid pollen once and got pods but it's frustrating-but some people have to do everything the hard way. Then there is collecting and storing seeds, they can take three years to bloom, some seed needs stratifying and some doesn't and blank pods are a constant pain--they shrivel and drop off. Some will self polinate, others are infertile to self or intraclonal pollinationl---on the other hand the bees may do it for you if you have two dips or two tets--if you have seen seed pods you will have no trouble. I'm not certain they will talk to me over on the daylily forum as I use species, sometimes wild ditch lily, try to cross dips with tets, plant seed outside in the fall and generally pay no attention to the rules and refuse to spend more than ten dollars on a daylily, have never bought a new "introduction' and don't intend to but sometimes I have a lot of fun. This year I crossed two species, minor and lilioasphedelus and have five seed pods already---the result may not be salable daylilies but they should be early and fragrant---if I live long enough to see them bloom! The thing is-to have fun! Weedy

I also wanna hybridise, but with a tiny flower.. the heuchera.. as some might know, theirs a lot of diversity in the plants, but in Oz, not so much, so as I want the colours.. I am trying to hybridise ... the flowers are TINY.. any suggestions?? please..

I also wanna hybridise, but with a tiny flower.. the heuchera.. as some might know, theirs a lot of diversity in the plants, but in Oz, not so much, so as I want the colours.. I am trying to hybridise ... the flowers are TINY.. any suggestions?? please..

Hi angophora,

"I am trying to hybridise ... the flowers are TINY.. any suggestions??"

I work with zinnias, but for some close in work with some that have concealed anthers or concealed stigmas, I use a head mounted magnifier. I chose the Bausch and Lomb Magna Visor, but there are many head-mounted magnifiers to choose from. You will also need some precision tweezers or precision forceps to manipulate the pollen with. I tried several different forceps and tweezers until I found my favorites.

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Hi again, angophora,

For some reason the first, third, and fourth links above take you to a bogus "could not find" page. To get where you were supposed to go, click on the "GO" in the Search box at the top of the pages that come up.

Oddly, all of those links worked in my Preview of my message, but this forum has some kind of technical problem with embedded links. I hope they solve that, because it is a real impediment to communication. I think they truly want to solve the problem, although the problem has existed for quite some time, so I wonder.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

ZM

Am trying to cross two phlox; they have really tiny stigmas and anthers but I did get a seed pod--I hope it was my pollinating and not a bee or humming bird but since they are not forming any pods except where I transferred pollen I may have made a cross. Now all I have to figure is how to save the seed, how to germinate it and how long it will take to get a blooming plant. Why do I do this???

Hi, Weedy,

I got your email. You didn't say what species of phlox you are working with, and there are a lot of species of phlox. But, for the sake of argument, I am going to assume you are working with annual phlox.

All that I remember from my experience with annual phlox is that their seeds come in small round pods and that the pods will shatter and their seeds will fall on the ground if you don't watch for the pods and pick them when the outside turns from light green to tan or brown.

In this day of information availability on the Internet, there is a lot of information available on the care of annual phlox.

"Why do I do this???"

I'll bite. Why do you do this?

ZM