I recently moved from Texas to Michigan, so this is my first year to have a "northern" garden where the growing season is practically half of what I'm used to. I've already killed my tomatoes :( . This will also be the first year I attempt to cross some of the most common varieties of veges, just to get a feel for it.

My first question is regarding Phaseolus vulgaris. I will be growing "Dragon Tongue" and "Royal Burgundy" bush beans, but have not been able to find any info about crossing different "strains" of the same species. Since they do not seem to be seperate sub-species, would this even be considered a cross? Or would I wind up with some generic garden bean that erases all that has been achieved by selective breeding to develope each parent strain? I know very well that the F1's won't be anything special, and that the F2's will have wildly varied geno- and phenotypes. What I don't know is which genes are dominant, recessive, co-dominant, and that sort of thing.

I'm sure this "cross" has been done before, so is there any info out there I just haven't found yet? Or better yet, has anyone here tried this yet?

Also, what is the best method to handpollinating beans without accidental selfpollination occuring?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm expecting the beans to do much better as they START life in the garden, so there's no drastic change or anything.

I guess the most important things I need to know is WHEN to remove the stamens and which pod color and/or shape (yellow vs. purple, and flat vs. round) are dominant as both are bush types. I intend to try both as mother and father to heighten my chances of success.