Cresteds on Hostas

[jaspersail]

I've bred hostas for the past dozen years... so this thread combines two of my favorite hobbies, cresteds and hostas.

My cream-backed male, Marley, on a blue hosta. This one came from AC's creamsicle pairing.


My red AC male, Conan, on a yellow hosta.


Erik's Reptiles "The King", now known as Rex.


My Pangea blonde harlequin, Marilyn on a "breeder" hosta called 'Galaxy'.
Marilyn fires up to a nice black and creamy white at night.


My cream-backed harley, Zoot.


My Pangea orange tiger dalmation, Burma.


A light fire, Claude, from Dragon's Den. I keep waiting to see it's color change...


More to come... Can you tell I like cream-backed cresteds?

--John

[IndyCrestie]

Great pictures...

Flowers are bred?

[DDReptiles]

Explain the breeding ritual of Hostas

Very Nice Geckos, now I know who got the king pinner....if I were you I would lock my doors tonight Very Nice geckos and plants

[IndyCrestie]

Explain the breeding ritual of Hostas

The male flower courts the female flower by waving his biggest leaf around in a circle....

[steph224]

I LOVE the first one!!! WOW!!!

[jaspersail]

Yes, hostas (and many other plants) are bred. Basically, you take the pollen from one hosta and put it on the stigma of another hosta. If the cross works, the hosta that received the pollen creates a seed pod with 20-30 seeds. Each seed is a unique combination of the parent's DNA.

One thing you can do with hostas that you can't do with geckos? Breed an individual to itself. Since hosta flowers carry both male and female reproductive parts, you can breed a plant to itself (to line-breed for a specific trait) and don't need to worry about male/female ratios!

Hosta breeders keep hostas with specific traits that they like (blue leaves, rippled leaf edges, variegation, red leaf stems, slug-resistance, etc) and use those for breeding. Some hosta breeding plants can be very expensive ($100 to $500).

I typically grow a few hundred seeds during the winter and keep the ones that show promise and cull the rest.

Still interested? Go here: http://www.hostalibrary.org/hyb/index.html

--John

[KevinS]

I know next to nothing about plants, but those cresteds sure are nice.

[jadeboa]

All of your geckos and hostas are wonderful.

[SharpExotics]

Very nice geckos!! Let me know if you ever do any breeding...I'd sure be interested!!

Israel

[Eriks Reptiles]

Oh its good to see king again!!! I LOVE that crested! Im not really sure why I sold any of them... LoL!! At least they got a good home!!

Keep me updated on how its colors change!!

Thanks Erik