hybridize an african violet

my seed pod never grew… or rather, i lost patience after a couple of months and plucked it out. I shall have to try again, however, it’s been nearly two months since any of my violets have bloomed. I will need to start taking better care, improve the watering and start add more fertilizer… I love it when they are in bloom and it’s only at that time that i can try to hybridize them again!

I learned recently that it can take months (up to 6!) for african violets to produce viable seeds. I conducted the insemination a few weeks ago so i suspect it will be a while before i see the pods begin to swell, if at all. It also means my AV probably won’t bloom again for a long period. Boo! But i’m growing a few at a time, so i suspect i’ll always have some flowers around when i need some cheering up. For now, i must wait.

I’ve owned a deep violet African violet plant (plant A) for several years now. It blooms on and off, and I feel I have started to understand its needs and know how to keep it happy. I recently bought a second plant (plant B) to see if I could repeat my success. I got it as it was dying in the plant isle at Walmart and managed to keep it alive and blooming! Now that my original violet has also bloomed for the season, I feel it’s time to experiment with hybridizing and cross-pollinating! I have chosen the new plant (ruffled leave, and ruffled white flowers with a pink rim) as the pollen donor and my original violet (rounded leaves and violet flowers) as my host.

For those of you who are interested, I broke open the anthers (yellow pollen sacks) of plant B and dusted the pollen onto the tip of my nail. I then proceeded to gently transfer the pollen from my finger onto the tip of the pistil (called stigma) of plant A. I also removed the anthers from the pollinated flowers of Plant A so that I can remember which ones I pollinated so that I don’t deadhead them when they begin to fade.

Hopefully my experiment worked! it should take 10-14 days for the seed pods to develop if the crosses were successful!

I’ll keep you posted!