Hybridizing Tillandsia Hildae

[Gbarce]

I've had this Tillandsia Hilday for 8 years I think.

It suddenly flowered and I didn't want to waste this opportunity to try my hand in crossing this large tillandsia with other weirder leafed varieties. The prospect of having new unusual looking varieties of plants is pretty exciting.

I posted the process step by step on a blog post. Here's the link:

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/2010/05/hybridizing-tillandsia.html

Anyone on the forum had any experience with this?

How long does it take for the seeds to develop?

How long does it take it to grow from seed to adult?

[BS Man about Palms]

Cool Gene!

[PalmsZA]

I am still waiting for mine to flower.

Gene put some Vriesea pollen on there too!

[Gonzer]

Gene, I'm not aware of any hybrids that have hildae as a parent. I can't imagine that no one has tried since the plant has such striking markings. The seed-raising process is very sloooooowwwwwww and can take upwards of 5-7 years to raise a small adult plant. Caput-medusae makes for some very cool crosses as does bulbosa and streptophylla. Best of luck to you and keep us updated.

[Gbarce]

I wish I had access to some Vriesea Pollen.

I was also dreaming up what the offspring would look like if this was crossed with Streptophylla, Bulbosa, Tectorum but alas no pollen from those.

Pretty exciting to see what comes out of this -- I am hoping for large sized plants with weird leaf forms and hopefully the stripes of the Hildae

I've crossed some Neoregelias before and out of the thousands of seeds only 3 or 4 turned out really nice. About 3 years from seed to getting an idea of what it will finally look like.

[PalmsZA]

Gene, you going to show us pics of your Neo hybrids?

[Gbarce]

OK

[Gbarce]

I don't really remember the parentage of these for sure but I just base it on who they look like.

I just randomly cross pollinated all the Neos that I had at one point and collected their seeds. There were so many sprouts and batches of seeds that I lost all track of what was crossed with what

THis is one of the nice ones that came out-- I'm pretty sure that the parent is "Royal Cordovan" crossed with one of the intensely colored cultivars of Grant Groves. THis has a nice and compact shape. The leaves are kind of golden bronze and blushes at the tips. The newest leaves usually show color. THese plants are not blooming so these are the normal colors of the plant.

It's kind of hard to photograph the colors of Neos. Often the camera does not catch the colors accurately

[Gbarce]

close up.

THese are already the off sets of the original plant so they are genetically identical. I put fertilizer on the bigger one when it was a pup

THe parent plant is the darker colored one on the right - not sure if it is teh father or mother though

[Gbarce]

THis one is another cross with Royal Cordovan. THey look very similar but this one is 3 times the size but the leaf arrangement is much looser and the colors are not as dark

For comparison the Royal cordovan is the amaller one on the right.

[Gbarce]

THis one is a cross with a cultivar named "Tossed Salad" It got the yellow leaves with teh red tips of the parent but the leaf arrangemennt is different

THe parent plant is the last one on the left in this picture

[Gbarce]

THe 4 plants on the top are the grown up offsets from the original hybrid and the one at the bottom is a Tossed Salad. The color variations on the hybrids ( more red on the tips) are probably due to cultural factors

Here's a shot from the side to illustrate the difference in leaf arrangements. Tossed salad on the right and the hybrid is on the left

the hybrid has a more upright leaf arrangement than the parent

[Gbarce]

I have no idea of on teh parentage of this one. The normal coloration is just the blushing colors at the center of the plant and at the tips. The very intensely colored one in the middle is about to bloom so that is not what the plant looks like for the most of ots life.

Close up of the one about to bloom

[Gbarce]

Its pretty interesting to see wht you get when you Hybridize, But you really have to be patient.

It takes about 3 years to get an idea of what the offspring will look like. Most of the seeds end up as plants that actually look more "primitive" than the parents - mostly just green with no distinguishing characteristics-- based on my experience at least.

You also have to have a lot of space-- you'll get thousands of seeds and as they all get bigger they space required grows exponentially.

It will be impossible to pot them all up individually and I have to admit I killed a lot of the seedlings due to neglect. As a hobby you only get to give the seedlings attention during weekends and for the most part there is nothing really happening so you get complacent on them

.

I only saved the ones that distinguished themselves at a very early stage. Kind of make you wonder what other cultivars you might have gotten if you saved them all.

But statistically speaking I guess you get the same proportion of "Supermodels " as you would in the human population

[PalmsZA]

Hey Gene

The purple Neo in the second set of pics is nice, as are the Tossed Salad hybrids-the one that I like most has the deep red ens to the leaf. Your pink ones are nice, the two at the bottom of the pic!

I agree that getting them to size is a slow process.... I have been doing it for a good few years to with some great results and I have produced so real cr@p (all dumped).

I will start a topic for brom hybrids...and post a few of my pics.

Thanks

Dennis