This year, I tried to pollinate Sarracenia leucophylla ‘Tarnok’. Be sure to read about it in the prior post… Remember, it’s a plant that many people say is sterile and will not produce any seed. Soooooo what happaned?! Let’s tear into the pod and find out!
DRUMROLLLLLLLL PLEEEASASSEEEEEEE…
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VERDICT 2011: NO SEEDS THIS YEAR!!!
NO FLIPPIN’ SEEDS!!! GOSH!!!
Oh Crapola! This setback will mos’ def NOT stop me from trying year after year. I have read of others that have had successful crosses with S. leucophylla ‘Tarnok’, so I will continue to try. And try. And try again.
And you know what else? It’s the story of my plants this year. I did roughly 100+ crosses this year – and MANY have failed me. There were maybe only 30 or less flowers that set seed. Last year I had quite a bit (120 or so) successful crosses… and this year was my WORST. EVER.
So what happened? There could of been several things that contributed to such a large amount of seed pods failing. The thing I *suspect* is stress. Early in January we had some warm weather for a couple of weeks that woke many of the plants up. Many began to flower… and by my standards, this was a very short dormancy period. Then in February we had all that freak hail action going on. Remember this freak hail storm?
So, that’s one of the big things that I think could of contributed to the failing of MANY pods. As I go through inspecting all the plants and many failed pods, the mantra is this: “There’s always next year…”
