Pollination of flowers (Clivia)

I pollinated my 2 flowers again with Mirabilis pollen...I really hope it pollinates..It will be so awesome. I found this great website that tells in more detail then I can about pollination and terms...http://mbgnet.net/bioplants/pollination.html The clivia pollen can be stored for 3 to 5 years depending on your conditions. The pollen needs to be keep in the freezer in a nice sealed tight container. Before using pollen, it should be allowed to adjust to room temperature. I wait about a half hour. To ensure the flower doesn't self pollinate, I remove the anthers, contain the pollen before it ripens. The anthers are ripe when you see the fluffy yellow pollen. You want to remove the anthers before this occurs. I open the flower very gently just before it completely opens and pull off the anthers with a tweezer. The flower is most likely to pollinate in the morning. If you have an old flower, there is a special technique to try. Take a little sugar water place a little on the stigma with a small brush or just experiment. The pollen then can be placed on the stigma. I use a pin to put the pollen on. Importantly, you definitely need a small tag to label the cross. I have small jewelry tags I bought on Ebay. The mother plant is written first then the pollen parent..like Painted Face x Warmheart. Warmheart is the pollen parent. I received the Warmheart pollen from a well known clivia breeder in South Africa. Warmheart is a famous interspecific clivia. The clivia has different species that will cross breed. I will go into more detail in the future. The clivia flower lasts for about 10 days depending on room temperature etc...After the flower falls off, one hopes that the small seed pod starts increasing in size..If it stays one size for a number of days, it will probably fall off unpollinated. It take around 9 months to ripen. The seed pod will change colors. You can have several seeds in the pod. I will explain about growing seeds in the near future. In the upcoming days I will post a picture of my clivia plant..until then happy Saturday

Oh yeah, I finally got my passport application in for my exciting trip in December. I wonder what kind of tropical plants I will encounter. Look for that post in December..

Have a great weekend...