Inyan

When you start seeing Iktomi (spider) it is a clear sign you may have too many cacti on your brain. On a serious note, I love seeing seedlings much more so than seeing cuttings, but why limit yourself to just one choice? Beautiful collection @Matagordamudskipper.

Seed for trade

Vitis rotundifolia a.k.a. the state fruit of North Carolina is a grape indigenous to the southern states. I have wild collected muscadine seeds for those interested. This will be for a limited offering. Most of the seeds come from a black variety. If you've never had any muscadine wine or grapes they are unlike any other grapes you've ever had as far as taste goes. Your either going to love them or hate them. There is no middle ground. Seeds are for postage or trade. I prefer Trichocereus pachanoi pollen, but will consider other offers so by all means contact me before thinking there is nothing you have to offer. Again, if nothing to trade I am perfectly happy with you simply paying postage.

I think this is called a forest. You left the realm of "some" quite a few cacti ago.

Trump says this whole mess is simply a Chinese conspiracy. Clearly, there is no need for alarm.

This baby is bad to the bone. Micro-grafts done on two cotyledon stage seedlings and a wedge graft as well. I'm thinking however this isn't entertaining enough. i might have to order some more seeds and graft 4 cotyledon stage babies together like this. I'm thinking an albino "x" type pattern should be done with the two albino seedlings diagonally opposed to each other and their non variegated counterparts done the same... it might make for an interesting grow out.

While we are talking about tricks to get different species to pollinate... mutilated or cut style approaches also sometimes works. I say leave no trick un-tricked in the quest for a hybrid until of course ones patience or resources run out.

"In Salvias the pollen must be recognised and accepted before the female makes moisture available for the pollen grain to then imbibe and germinate. This is a very selective process and many interspecific crosses fail at this point." This is where mentor pollen comes into play. Dead S. divinorum pollen is presented to make the pistil receptive. This dead pollen is mixed with the desired species pollen one wishes to use to pollinate. This is of course just one way of doing this or getting around a barrier to pollination.

http://salvia-hybrids.blogspot.com I present the above for those interested in how to hybridize Salvia. Just because it has not been done with Salvia divinorum does not mean it can not be done. The more varieties that are tried the more likelihood that a compatible species may be found. Just because a single pollination attempt does not garner any seeds it does not mean that the 1000th time you will not get a seed. The more people that try the more likelihood that someone will be successful. For those for whom this instruction is too complicated.... simply planting your S. divinorum in a bed of a different type or species of S. divinorum may create a hybrid if the bees decide to do the work for you. Most importantly, you must collect the seed from your S. divinorum and grow them out. Of course, if the cross can only be done with S. divinorum as the pollen donor.... you might want to have a bed of S. divinorum with a single specimen of another species in the middle of your bed of S. divinorum. For the record, I think emasculation is the much better route to go, but I leave no option unchecked in such a goal....

After reading this I knew I had to share this to help some peeps out.

Chromosome numbers can be changed via the application of colchicine to the plant itself or seeds. There are other chemicals available that will also do the same so what one should be looking for in chromosome counts is anything with either the same number of chromosomes or double those chromosomes. With Hemerocallis there have been crosses made with triploids after many many attempts. What one has to understand is that even when the chromosome counts don't match up... there is always the possibility of unreduced pollen and many other variables that can come into play. Things like using a mentor pollen, donor pollen, pollen cocktails, and the like. The bottom line is I'd be excited to see any species mixed in with S. divinorum and given just two seeds of a viable hybrid such as this I could extend those two seeds into many plants and produce a small field of f2 seedling followed by a larger field of f3 seedlings. Breeding cold hardiness into a S. divinorum type hybrid... would that not be nice?

Why could you not go along both routes at the same time? To selectively try to breed for a better S. recognita utilizing a large batch of seed which may show some variability could indeed take many generations and while it would be cool to do so with a completely different species on its own, what would it hurt to try to do the same through hybridization efforts at the same time? When S. divinorum has a status in many places that is less than legal getting those genes into another species via hybridization would be a boon for those wishing to work with that species where they can't as they would effectively be working with a hybrid. Introducing S. divinorum genes into S. recognita one could then do your standard F2, f3, f4, f5 sibling crosses to select out the strongest from the batch each generation. Many serious hybridizers not only work these f2, f3, f4, etc. type crosses, but they would also breed back to each parent as well to stabilize traits from either parent. The idea being to make a cross like this... (S. recognita x S. divinorum) x S. divinorum. While also making the cross (S. recognita x S. divinorum) x S. recognita. One could very easily then go on to create 2 more lines with these backcrosses to each parent. Never mind the reverse crosses (S. divinorum x S. recognita) x S. recognita and (Saliva divinorum x S. recognita) x S. divinorum could also be done as mitochondria and chloroplasts are donated from the maternal side I think we would be remiss if we did not also count those reciprocal crosses as well as good potentials. With that being said, we could in theory have 5 good working lines of of hybrids going trying to selectively improve and introduce new traits into the mix while also working with each species separately trying to increase the desirable traits there as well. So, all told we would looking at 7 different lines. Given how hard it is to get some hybrids started... I would think the sooner the better to get started on any of these lines. Then there is the logistics of testing the material from each of these 7 different lines to determine which ones to breed with. If I can grow 10K Brugmansia from seed to maturity in a small space... I can only imagine how many more Salvia could be grown in that same small space. An important question though... do the two species have the same chromosome number or can they be easily made to have the same chromosome number? If not as one member suggested... another species with the appropriate number of chromosomes either the same or double would need to be used to most easily facilitate a hybrid cross outside of protoplast fusion techniques.