PART FOUR: Getting Ready to be a Grandparent

When your seeds have germinated and your plants are growing you can certainly say that you were successful in your seed starting adventure. But, there is perhaps one more goal that brings a feeling of accomplishment to the seed raiser – Flowers. It is indeed a special day when one of your seedlings flowers. This is truly the culmination of all your work. The flower is a sign that your plant is now fully mature.

Some plants can flower very quickly from seed. Annuals, like Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflora) and Livingstone Daisy (Dorotheanthus spp.) will certainly provide abundant flowers in one season. But, other perennial succulents can also be fast to bloom. I have had Glottiphyllum bloom in less than a year and Mammillaria zacatecasensis bloom in less than two years. I am sure with the right treatment there are many more examples, but I would suspect these probably would not be cacti. In general, most succulents are slow and you must care for them for many years before seeing flowers.

Now, it is not my intent to go into detail on how to raise your plants to adulthood and flowering. Still, there are some things you should be aware of. Your very young seedlings must be prepared before they head out into the real world. If you have started your seeds under artificial lighting, then acclimation to the sun is essential. I have found that even very small plants will do better in the brighter light and (usually) warmer temperatures of the outdoors. I also know that plants unaccustomed to this environment can be burnt, desiccated, or killed.

Acclimating your plants is not hard to do, but it does take patience and diligence. What must be done is a slow process of increasing the light and temperature so that the plant can get used to its new surroundings. I usually take my new plants outside into an area of bright shade and keep them there for a week. I then move them to an area with a bit more light for another week. After that, I put some out in the full sun (many of my young plants stay under a shade cloth for the first year). Checking your plants each day during this process will alert you to any problems (too much sun is a common one) and allow you to correct it.

Once your plants are used to their new location you should use your own good cultivation skills to keep them healthy and growing to adulthood.

Let’s skip a bit shall we – Let’s say you and I are a little bit older and your seedlings are coming into flower. You are, of course, ecstatic and you’ve probably showed them to all your cactus-and-succulent –loving friends. It may occur to you at this time that you might be able to collect seed from your plants, and you could plant them and that would sort of make you a grandparent. But, how should you go about this seed making?

As you might suspect, you’re going to need a Mommy and a Daddy to make babies, right? That’s not always true in the plant world. Sometimes seeds can be produced without any mixing of genetic material, but we’re not going to go into that here.

The ‘Daddy’ would be the pollen which is on the anthers and is usually that yellow powdery stuff that gets on your nose when you smell a flower (okay, I know you don’t get that close to too many cactus flowers). Pollen can also be other colors as well and is not always powdery but it is usually not hard to find. The ‘Mommy’ is not always so easy to find, however.

The female parts of the flower include eggs, ovary, style, and stigma. Needless to say, the pollen must find its way to the egg and this process should be familiar to all of you who didn’t sleep through your plant biology. I won’t rehash all that now for fear of loosing my readers (and perhaps a few friends). What we’re interested in is the stigma, which is where the pollen is deposited by insects, bats, mice, and all sorts of other means. The stigma can sometimes be found sticking out in plain sight, ready to accept the pollen. Sometimes, it isn’t as noticeable, being tucked down inside the floral tube, or taking on a shape similar to the anthers. Sometimes it can’t be found at all. This may be due to your aging eyesight or it could be that the flower doesn’t have one (just when you thought it was going to be easy). Some plants have the male and female parts on different flowers, so you may have to look around. Some plants have the male and female flowers on different plants, so you may have to look a bit further. Fortunately, the male and female parts are usually on the same flower. Notable exceptions: many Euphorbia have separate male and female flowers (the popular Euphorbia obesa has them on different plants) and many of the pachyform cucurbits (you fat-plant collectors know what I’m talking about) have them on different plants.

At any rate, you need to find the pollen and find the stigma and get the pollen on the stigma. A small paint brush works well. Oh, by the way, before you dash out with your brush here are a few rules that will increase your chances of success. Try to keep your gene mixing in the same family; Cacti with cacti, asclepiad with asclepiad, mesemb with mesemb, etc.. Better yet, stay within the same Genus; Echinopsis with Echinopsis, Pachypodium with Pachypodium, Haworthia with Haworthia, etc.. And even better, stay within the same species. The farther the relationship between the male and female, the less likely that seeds will be produced. You will find that sometimes a plant will pollinate itself but many times it won’t. Cross pollinating two individuals (not clones) of the same species will not only give you good results, but the seedlings will be stronger and you at least will know what to call them.

Once fertilization has occurred a fruit will form with the seeds inside. This fruit can be large, small, long, short, fleshy, dry, hidden, or in plain sight. Knowing when the fruit is ripe and the seed ready can be as easy as waiting for an Opuntia fruit to turn red and fall or as hard as finding that the Euphorbia fruit has exploded and scattered the seeds all over the greenhouse. Collection can be made easier with a little bagging and gluing and I’ll try to get into that a bit more next time.

Next month PART FIVE: Customizing Your Cactus