I can address a few of these. Many of the Vaccinium species will cross easily, but usually only if they have the same number of chromosomes-there are 2x, 4x, and 6x types. The 2x x 4x crosses rarely work, but 4x x 6x crosses usually do work although the hybrids typically have low fertility. A good example is highbush blueberry x rabbiteye. Deerberry will cross readily with lingonberry and maybe cranberry, but less likely with the other Vaccinium species. Bilberries cross easily with lingonberries in the wild, but the hybrids are usually sterile. V. ovatum will possibly cross with bilberry, but not highbush blueberry. The true huckleberries will not cross with Vaccinium. Native and European gooseberries cross easily and American black currant will cross with European black currant. The native northern persimmon has been crossed with kaki persimmon (both hexaploid), but with great difficulty. The more common southern race is tetraploid. Some of these crosses will yield hybrids that are sterile or low in fertility. The gooseberry, mountain ash, and crabapples should produce fertile hybrids easily, and some of the Vaccinium species will cross easily producing fertile hybrids, such as augustifolia x corymbosum. The southern highbush and northern highbush blueberries are totally cross compatible. You will probably not get good answers from NAFEXers about many of these crosses (but you should still join). If you can find the three volume Fruit Breeding series, edited by Jules Janick and James N. Moore, you should be able to get answers to most of these questions. These are very expensive books so try borrowing them through a library. You can also get a good portion through Google books. The link below is for Vol 2, vines and small fruits. Vol 3 covers the nuts. Vol 1 covers tree and tropical fruits. ~kiwinut Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Breeding Vol 2 preview

Hi everyone. Carol - You may not be doing anything wrong; not all flowers can successfully be pollinated. Also the particular flower may not be at the stage where it's ready to accept pollen and be fertilised. See Lisa's comments (April 24 2007) where she says: "As to how you can tell when the stigma (tip of the pistil) is receptive, if you have very good eyesight (and X-ray vision) you might possibly be able to see a sticky little droplet forming on the tip. This is much easier to see on a Billbergia or Vriesea or other type that has its floral parts hanging out for all to see, but on a Neo. it's almost impossible. For one thing the stigma on a Neo. is smaller than on those other genera, and for another thing most (but not all) of them seem to have the stigma hidden underneath the stamens, where it's invisible until you remove the stamens." You say, "All of the above seeds were from natural or self-pollination"; this doesn't mean the resulting seedlings may be no good, the only problem with this is, you don't know who the male parent is. There have been countless beautiful hybrids produced by the actions of Mother Nature's "little helpers". If you look through the B.C.R. you will find several cases where the male parent is unnamed; this can be for one of three reasons; firstly the hybridiser doesn't wish to share this information, secondly, the male parent was a NOID (had no ID) or thirdly, the pollination was performed by an insect or small bird, in which case the pollen could have come from anywhere. One of my hybrids (Aechmea 'Grey Surprise') is just one such example where the male parent was unknown and the cross was probably made by birds or insects. See: http://registry.bsi.org/index.php?fields=Breeder&id=14401&search=wood Aechmea 'Grey Surprise' As you progress with hybridising, you will find that many crosses just won't take for various reasons. However, do as you say, "I'll keep at it." as it's been proven that persistence beats resistance. All the best, Nev.

Alrighty, here's how I grow my Hibiscus from cuttings, learned doing some nursery work on Kauai and plenty of research online. I take cuttings of almost any size, but have found that 6"-1' work best. If it's a fresh cut, all the better. I scarify (cut, scrape, etc.) the base of the cutting, I do this about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up the stalk from the base. I apply a dusting of rooting hormone to the damaged section of the cutting and then allow it to dry over. I mix 1/3 sand, 1/3 perlite, and 1/3 potting mix for the growing medium; this gives it good drainage, and the sand and soil will compact down to help hold the cutting in place while it roots. You can also leave about 1/2-1 inch of room between the soil-line and the rim to fill with pebbles or small gravel, will help hold your cutting in place. I can't tell you how many times I had something rooting like a champ and it gets knocked down and killed...LoL. A month or more of work down the drain =p If it's a larger cutting, I put them in a dappled light to partial sun part of the yard, and water when it's dry. I see results in 5-8 weeks on average, meaning a root pokes through the bottom or a new leaf forms. I use the black planters to help keep the cutting, and eventually the roots, warm to aid with the growth and development. Once I see there are indeed some roots, I give it a light application of Bonemeal or calcium to further aid in the process. I've rooted anything from 3" long bare sticks, to 4' long branches full of leaves, but it seems to take the least amount of time using the medium sized, hardwood cuttings, with some leaves. Cut any leaves that are left on the trimming in half and allow them to dry over, this way the plant doesn't lose as much moisture when the leaves begin to die and rot or fall away. This can make a mess too, encouraging mold and bacteria to grow in the soil. The rooting hormone also has an anti-fungal/bacterial agent in it, which helps repel and/or kill anything that grows which would otherwise rot the cutting before it roots. Some plants, such as the Gardenia, I have read need to be grown from soft-wood cuttings, (trying this out for myself) meaning the newer growth which has not yet turned to wood, but is not so soft that it wilts after being cut. A good way to find some is to bend the green/brown new growth, if it snaps when you get to about 90 degrees, it's good to go! Also, for these tender plants, the smaller the cutting, the easier it is to root. Puakenikeni is the same way, I HAVE rooted 8" cuttings, though it says online that the mortality rate is too high to bother with it, I belive it was over 80% on average. But after reading that, I tried and succeeded in rooting 6 out of 10 cuttings. Wasn't too bad for me =] If you can't work with the airlayering, cuttings are a good way to go. I'm no expert, but I've rooted plenty of things, and most often you can find out what part of the plant is best to root just by looking it up online. Hope this helps ya out some, again I'm no botanist, but this is from personal experience ! Aloha! ~Dave

Yes, I did mean the physical difficulties of a GD X Chi breeding. From what you say there is already a partial incompatibility in that a female Chi would require a C-section to give birth. I am sure a male Chi is willing but I don't know about the mechanics of such a small dog mounting a GD. Is that a common phenomena round your parts? :) You seem to think that somehow the breeders don't catch such instances. In that case, do such crosses end up being registered with the AKC as Chi's or GDs? I don't think your Mutt argument holds water. Most snakes are common garters but that doesn't mean other snake species don't exist that can cross breed with them. So it is not material whether most dogs are mutts or whether most mutts choose their own mates. It could still be that pruebreds could qualify as species even if there was enourmouse one-way genetic flow from purebreds to mutts. If breeders are indeed keeping their breeds genetically isolated then that is a isolation mechanism same as any other. Whether that is true or not I have no idea. Seems to me that for the most part it is true. They even keep registries of who the parents are. Whether Mutts are more healthy is also not material to my argument. Cheetahs are genetically inbred and not very vigourous but they still qualify as a species. Also note that inbreeding in and of itself is not the cause of genetic disease. The only thing inbreeding does is expose harmful recessives to natural selection. There are species which inbreed early and often which do not have problems (in particular termites). It is the fact that most species do not inbreed that allows harmful recessive genes to be prevalent in the gene pool. Breeders could weed these recessives out but they don't for financial reasons. It's expensive. Inbreeding can be a problem if one has a small pool of individuals and they become so genetically similar that there is no variation in their immune defenses. Thus a germ that is exposed to the selective pressure of getting around a single individuals immune system automatically has the correct attack strategy for the next individual it infects. This is one reason why "clone armies" are unrealistic. Even if you had a very healthy person to clone a germ would eventually arise that would decimate your army. Plant enthusiasts have already experienced exactly this type of situation. Monoclone fields can be more prone to communicable diseases. One named variety may have had it's defenses breeched and may be more prone to certain diseases than other named varieties. Especially when the named variety is vegitatively propagated.