Why my geraniums don't make seeds?

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

I brought like 10 different plants of geranium from my garden center and none of them make seeds! I grew up in Italy where we used to exchange geranium seeds among neighbors and it was one of my favorite hobbies. All these geraniums make flowers, then wilt and there are no trace of seeds and I see no effort whatsoever in making them. Can they all be hybrids? Is this a marketing strategy so you are prevented from promulgating them?

I am reproducing them now by taking off branches and making new plants, but I miss the growing new plants by seed part. So my question is: if I purchase geranium seeds online and grow them from seed, will they make seeds when they bloom? Many thanks to those who help me solve the puzzle.

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Comments (4)

dowlinggram
8 years ago
I assume these are pelargorum

I have never tried to collect seed but I know some hybrids make seeds. I break my spent blooms off so they will make more flowers. Collecting seeds from any hybrid will not get you a plant like the one you took the seed from. It can resemble any one of it's ancestors or be a mixture of any of them

I make more plants by taking cuttings like you are doing or buy seed. Many growers take cuttings too. You can have a blooming plant in a couple of months from a cutting as opposed to 4 months from seed

If you purchase seed it will be no different than the plants you buy unless you can find somewhere that sells heirloom geraniums--if there is such a place
Maritza Gonzalez
8 years ago
I have hybrids that give seeds and other not. This depends of the chromosomes'pairs in the hybridization. I like to buy Maverick seeds and Orbit seeds because I enjoy seeing them grow and develop. Park Seeds y Garden Harvest Supply have good seeds.
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asclepiad_fan
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
To exclude lack of pollinators, you may try hand pollination. However, some hybrids will make lots of flowers and still fail to pollinate. There reason is in the chromosomes as Maritza said: A normal plant is diploid, i.e. has one pair of each chromosome: One chromosome from the ovule and one from the pollen, giving two of each. (The pollen and the ovule are haploid, having a single chromosome of each. Only upon fertilization, the lone chromosomes pair-up in the fertilized ovule).

Some chemicals, such as Colchicine, disrupt the cell division and result in doubling the number of chromosomes in the plant cells. Quote from Wikipedia: "Colchicine is also used for inducing polyploidy in plant cells during cellular division by inhibiting chromosome segregation during meiosis"

A plant cell exposed to colchicine does not segregate the chromosomes and the cell ends-up with a double number. The resulting plant is tetraploid, having 2 pairs of each chromosome, or 4 of each. The tetraploid is fertile, but when crossed with a diploid, the resulting seed will give a triploid plant, having 3 chromosomes of each. An odd number means that when chromosomes group in pairs, one will remain solitary. The reason is as follows: One of the cells (ovule, or pollen) is diploid (2n), the other is haploid (n). The fertilized egg will be triploid (2n+n=3n).

The triploid plant will flower profusely, but will fail to fertilize. Even a thorough hand pollination will give you no seeds at all. This is how seedless fruits are developed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seedless_fruit
Maritza Gonzalez
8 years ago
Hi! Asclepiad:

I knew that because I have many triploids in my garden and I had to stady hybridization to know why did not they give me seeds. Your exposure of the subject is very nice and explicit, l congratulate you, greetings.

Why my geraniums don't make seeds?

Comments (4)

dowlinggram

Maritza Gonzalez

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Maritza Gonzalez

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