That is a surprise, Stephania! Bigenerics are usually sterile, but good old Mother Nature doesn't always recognize the taxonomic categories we put things in, particularly when we keep moving them around, lumping and splitting. Maybe in this case she's a lumper, but you'd better wait and see if there's actually any viable seed in those pods before you notify the media. ;-)

For this reason I think that some trigenerics may be possible, though rare. Did you give your pollinating ants specific instructions to go between the Dyckia and the xDeucohnia? One way you can give them the message is to place the two plants so that the inflorescences, or at least the stalks, are touching each other, and the ants naturally travel from one to the other. In that case you might have a chance for a rare xDeucohkia, but if they were far apart, probably not.

I think D. estevesii and marnier-lapostollei would make a great cross! Unfortunately some of the shorter Dyckia spikes only have open flowers for a few days, but if you think you might miss the timing you can collect the pollen of the earlier one and store it in the refrigerator until the second one opens. I put pollen in a small container (like a film can or small pill bottle) and cover it with a paper towel, you don't want it to be air-tight. If you have longer than a few weeks to wait, you can put pollen in little aluminum foil packets and freeze it, but you have to make sure it doesn't thaw out until you are ready to use it. I've successfully pollinated Billbergias with freezer pollen, but I've never tried it on anything else.

Good luck!

Oop...it was my error...I should write Dyckconia...not Dick !!!

Thanks Lisa, I estimate that both will open in the same time,
may be next week and I will try my best, or let my ants do that job...LOL

Stephania, How would you save pollen and how would you pollinate a Dyckia? Is it easy?

Stephania! I like your NY. T-shirt ! Good to see you are having a fortunate pollenation opportunity,and sure hope it works out for you.[and maybe me too,if it does ;)]
I planted my Enchorlirum seeds from Rudolf yesterday,and am awaiting results. Is it ok to look every few hours to see if they sprouted yet? [anxious parent ;)]
Good fortune with your experimental crosses.
Bob
ps: Looks like your plants are outdoors in any weather all year,...is this so?

My goodness Lisa! Hope you are all right.
I have seen the report, there are not any fatalities in Hawaii earthquake.
But we didn't hear from you for a while...hope everything OK.

Also Bob, as your son stays in Hawaii..hope he's all right too.

If my hybrid was done...may be I would name one of them 'Earthquake'

Foxwichya, nothing much, in this case, as I mentioned, I, really use the ants to fertilize the flowers, as there are only two kinds of plant blooming in the same time, so I place both plant closed together, the inflorescence of each other then attached, and let the pollinators do thier natural job. Sometime, I saw a kind of bettle cling on the flower too.

Hi Friends, just want to show the growth of my seed pods, I took the pic this morning.
And in the 2nd pic you will see, there are more dozen fertiled pods growing up.
I'm not sure they are self-fertiled or crossing with Dyck. marnier-lapostollei :-)

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Don't get too excited until they actually germinate, Stephania. Sometimes seeds will set up but they're not viable, particularly with bigenerics. If they look small and shriveled when the pod pops open, then that's not a good sign, but it's too early to tell. Let's hope you've got something!