Introduction
IN THIS EPISODE GARDEN SMART VISITS AN EXPERT PROPAGATOR to learn about
breeding and ultimately how a plant makes it to your garden. How do
plants go from concept to creation and then out into the garden center
and ultimately into the garden? It's a fascinating process of how the
geneticists work with plants and how new plants are developed.
Click here for more info
Cultivar
THERE IS A LOT OF CONFUSION ABOUT WHAT IS A CLONAL PLANT OR CULTIVAR
and how does that differ from, say a seedling strain or variety or just
a seedling. First, what is a cultivar? A cultivar, or a cultivated
variety is a plant that's been selected for genetic traits and that
plant is going to be genetically identical to all the other plants of
that name variety.
A great example of that would be the Bradford Pear. As everyone, that
lines their driveway with Bradford Pears, knows they all look the same.
Leyland Cypresses, Encore Azaleas, are other similar examples. They are
all genetically identical.
Click here for more info
Seedling
A SEEDLING STRAIN IS A TYPE PLANT that's been grown from seed and
selected for certain variety characteristics that one would want to
express. An example would be Helleborus x 'Royal Heritage' which has
uniform vigor, the same leaf type, but different flowers so they're not
cloned to be identical. Instead they select out certain traits. With a
lot of annual production they're grown from seed because they come true
or close to true from seed. This is an example of a seedling strain
whereas a cultivar is cloned, and they're all genetically identical.
Click here for more info
Making a Cultivar Selection
ERIC NEXT EXPLORES HOW TO MAKE A CULTIVAR SELECTION or a seedling
strain selection. There are some interesting examples of plants that
have mutated a bit, and have desirable traits that one may want to
propagate. An example is a seedling mutation of Gaillardia x
grandiflora 'Burgundy.' Burgundy normally has just a flat green leaf
with a beautiful magenta red flower. What we have here is an
interesting selection with nice pure white variegation, which is quite
different from anything we've seen in Gaillardia. Thus, this would be
one that could be propagated and could become a new cultivar.
Click here for more info
Branch Sport
ON WOODY PLANTS AND ON PERENNIAL PLANTS OFTENTIMES ONE SEES WHAT'S
CALLED A BRANCH SPORT, which is where only one branch on the plant will
mutate and have different qualities. A lot of variegated plants come
from this source, branch sports. An example is Weigela, My Monet which
was a variegated branch sport. The foliage was normal but out of the
side of the Weigela was growing one branch that had a beautiful
tri-color pink on white variegation. Basically, the way one would make
a whole plant out of the variegated sport would be to take a little
branch cutting, root it, then the genes would be passed on into the
next plant, the next plant and so forth.
Click here for more info
Pollination
THE NEXT AREA ERIC AND MATT DISCUSS IS POLLINATION. A lot of wonderful
plants like Roses and Daylilies are produced through controlled crosses
or hand pollination. The seeds are then collected from those and
planted out. Eric and Matt work with some beautiful Hemerocallis or
Daylilies and discuss the different parts of the plant. The stamen, or
anthers, is where the male structure of the plant is located. The long
tube is the female structure. Eric has 2 Daylilies. He wants to take
the dark purple colors in one Daylily and breed it into another Daylily
with a beautiful ruffled edge. Both plants are fantastic specimens.
What Eric does is take the pollen from one plant and transfer it to the
other plant and hope the traits of each plant transfer to the other
plant. He uses a little natural bristle brush and collects the pollen
from the male parts of the plant and then sprinkles that on the female
portion of the other plant. It's important that the plant doesn't
pollinate itself. Thus he emasculates or de-staminates the receiving
plant by taking the male parts off that plant so that all remains is
the pollen from the other. Oftentimes the flower will be covered with a
paper bag so that a bee, wind or something else doesn't spread
additional pollen from one plant to another. They will then wait until
they have a nice seed head, collect the seed, plant the seed and
hopefully they'll end up with a beautiful Hemerocallis with a ruffled
edge and a dark purple center.
Click here for more info
New Species
WE NOW LOOK AT A NUMBER OF NEW SPECIES. The question arises - what
improvements have been made for gardeners in the way of new plants. A
number of new applications have made life more interesting for the
garden and gardener. An example is Delosperma cooperi 'Ice Plant.' It
is basically a species of Ice Plant, with a nice, chartreuse, fuchsia
flower. It is an excellent plant but because of the bold color its use
could be limited in the garden. Thus a new cultivar of a hybrid
Delosperma has been introduced. Delosperma 'Mesa Verde' has an
incredible coral orange color which is brand new for Delosperma. One of
the neat things is if you've got a little bit of a warmer motif, if
using reds, yellows and oranges in the garden, the fuchsia might bring
in too much contrast. Whereas the nice orange will work better with
that color scheme, making Delosperma available to the gardener with
that color scheme. It's a nice improvement in Delosperma.
Click here for more info
New Foliage
THERE ARE EXAMPLES OF SELECTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE FOR FOLIAGE TYPES.
An example is Buddleia, or Butterfly Bush, which has become a popular
plant for the summer garden. We view 3 different types of Buddleia. One
is a variegated form, Buddleia 'Santana' which has a beautiful yellow,
green look. Another, Buddleia crispa x loricata 'Silver anniversary'
has a nice silver whitish color. A third, Buddleia davidii 'Pyrkeep'
has a more typical green leaf. These provide an idea about different
applications from a design standpoint. If one has a garden with a lot
of rich blues and purples the kind of flash provided by the whitish
silver would make colors pop. By contrast, with a golden color design,
anything from gold to gold green, would be an excellent accent and
different from the silver in Silver Anniversary. The Purple Emperor has
more of a standard bloom type and standard foliage.
Click here for more info
Plants Bred for Form
SEVERAL OTHER PLANTS HAVE BEEN BRED SPECIFICALLY FOR THEIR FORM. Eric
thinks some of the most exciting plants bred in the past few years have
been bred primarily for form, although it does seem plants with neat
foliage and flowers get a lot more attention. For example, Eric's
garden is small, he doesn't have room for a Bald Cypress tree. Much
work has been done in this area. One example is Taxodium distichum
'Peve Minaret.' Normally, Bald Cypress gets very large but this one
will only reach 7 or 8 feet tall. It will work beautifully in a smaller
space.
Ginkgo biloba 'Spring Grove' is a dwarf form of a Ginko. It will reach
3 or 4 feet tall where Ginko's typically get massive, 80 or 90 feet
tall, with huge trunks. But, since this stays 3 or 4 feet tall it opens
up many new areas where this plant can be utilized.
Click here for more info
Disease Resistance
ANOTHER IMPORTANT TRAIT BEING BRED INTO NEW PLANTS IS DISEASE FREE OR
LOW MAINTENANCE QUALITIES. These are plants that don't get covered in
powdery mildew, blight or whatever. A lot of work has taken place over
the past few years in breeding disease resistance back into plants. We
certainly don't want to put out more chemicals on our garden than
absolutely necessary and gardeners don't want to spend time treating
their plants, thus several plants are wonderful selections that have
been developed for their disease resistance and low maintenance. This
new work has allowed plants to be used in applications where they had
not been used before. The Rosa Double Knock Out 'Radtko' is an example.
It was bred specifically to be more disease resistant which for roses,
in particular, is very important. Roses had been waning in popularity
primarily due to how chemical intensive they were. The Knock Out has in
many ways revived the popularity of roses. Roses are becoming more
popular in the landscape because of the disease resistance that has
been bred back into them.
Click here for more info
New and Interesting Plants
ERIC NOW SHOWS US A FEW PLANTS INTRODUCED DURING THE PAST FEW YEARS
THAT ARE NEW AND INTERESTING. Hydrangea arborescens 'White Dome' is a
nice white flower form of Lace Cap. It has a larger bloom, a nice lacy
look, is a little flatter and is rimmed by little bracks to give it a
dainty elegant look.
Gaillardia 'Oranges & Lemons' has one of the best flower forms and
certainly is one of the most persistent of all Gaillardias. It is an
electric orange and the plant blooms from early spring till November,
in Eric's garden.
Mimosa, Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' is unique. Who would
have thought several years ago that we would be planting a Mimosa in
our gardens? It's a great native tree, in the past primarily viewed as
a weed tree. A purple sport, they believe from Japan, started a new
application. It has a nice frilly leaf and black plants are excellent
for accents in the garden. It's another great addition.
Click here for more info
Complete transcript of the show.
707. From Breeding To How A Plant Makes It To Your Garden
Eric fell in love with plants as a kid and has been fascinated with how
they work ever since. And plant propagation is a topic near and dear to
his heart. He's been a plant propagator for over 10 years and worked on
numerous tough to root woody ornamentals. Today there is much happening
in the plant world. IN THIS EPISODE GARDEN SMART VISITS AN EXPERT
PROPAGATOR to learn about breeding and ultimately how a plant makes it
to your garden. How do plants go from concept to creation and then out
into the garden center and ultimately into the garden? It's a
fascinating process of how the geneticists work with plants and how new
plants are developed.
Our guest host this week is Mat Seader, a fellow UGA grad and a great
plant propagator. Matt will walk us through the plant propagation
process, tell us what excites him about plant propagation and how the
many improvements in breeding and plant propagation have brought new,
wonderful horizons to gardeners today through both new and improved
plants as well as new uses for those plants.
Top
CULTIVAR
We start in the propagation house where we're surrounded by many
wonderful examples of new plants and plant propagation. THERE IS A LOT
OF CONFUSION ABOUT WHAT IS A CLONAL PLANT OR CULTIVAR and how does that
differ from, say a seedling strain or variety or just a seedling.
First, what is a cultivar? A cultivar, or a cultivated variety is a
plant that's been selected for genetic traits and that plant is going
to be genetically identical to all the other plants of that name
variety.
A great example of that would be the Bradford Pear. As everyone, that
lines their driveway with Bradford Pears, knows they all look the same.
Leyland Cypresses, Encore Azaleas, are other similar examples. They are
all genetically identical.
Top
A SEEDLING STRAIN IS A TYPE PLANT that's been grown from seed and
selected for certain variety characteristics that one would want to
express. An example would be Helleborus x 'Royal Heritage' which has
uniform vigor, the same leaf type, but different flowers so they're not
cloned to be identical. Instead they select out certain traits. With a
lot of annual production they're grown from seed because they come true
or close to true from seed. This is an example of a seedling strain
whereas a cultivar is cloned, they're all genetically identical.
Top
ERIC NEXT EXPLORES HOW TO MAKE A CULTIVAR SELECTION or a seedling
strain selection. There are some interesting examples of plants that
have mutated a bit, and have desirable traits that one may want to
propagate. An example is a seedling mutation of Gaillardia x
grandiflora 'Burgundy.' Burgundy normally has just a flat green leaf
with a beautiful magenta red flower. What we have here is an
interesting selection with nice pure white variegation, which is quite
different from anything we've seen in Gaillardia. Thus, this would be
one that could be propagated and could become a new cultivar. If
propagated it might be called - Gaillardia 'White Snow' for example.
Who knows? While talking about Gaillardias, one example was a sport of
Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Goblin.' It has wonderful huge yellow flowers
that are unique and very different from anything we've previously seen
in Gaillardias. It's a lot bigger. Thus, this would be a wonderful
candidate for propagation. It provides the opportunity to come up with
a brand new Gaillardia cultivar, one where all would bloom with a
wonderful yellow flower. Another interesting example is a Coreopsis x
with yellow on green variegation. This would be a neat plant, that once
propagated could become another great Coreopsis selection.
Top
ON WOODY PLANTS AND ON PERENNIAL PLANTS OFTENTIMES ONE SEES WHAT'S
CALLED A BRANCH SPORT, which is where only one branch on the plant will
mutate and have different qualities. A lot of variegated plants come
from this source, branch sports. An example is Weigela, My Monet which
was a variegated branch sport. The foliage was normal but out of the
side of the Weigela was growing one branch that had a beautiful
tri-color pink on white variegation. Basically, the way one would make
a whole plant out of the variegated sport would be to take a little
branch cutting, root it, then the genes would be passed on into the
next plant, the next plant and so forth.
A Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue' is an example of a cultivar. One might
want to preserve the traits in this Caryopteris because it has a
beautiful bluish green leaf, but as well it has excellent, lavender
bluish flowers. If we simply collected seed from this plant these
traits would not necessarily be carried on. To take this plant from
plant to production, cuttings must be taken. To do that start with a
small selection of this shrub and cut off that section. Always remove
the flowers, if any are present, because those will cause a bit of
stress to the plant while trying to root. We don't want the plant to
put energy into producing flowers, instead use all its stored energy
making roots. Take a section, cut below the leaf nodes because that's
where the roots will form. Remove the leaves present, then dip in a
rooting hormone (which is available at any garden center). Rooting
hormone is basically a chemical that will help the plant root. It is
naturally present in plants and causes the plant to root under stress.
The plant is then placed in a potting media and then placed under a
mist system. The mist is important because the plant doesn't have any
roots and we don't want it to loose water before it makes roots. The
mist system puts out a burst of water every 5 minutes or so, keeps the
leaf wet so it doesn't expend any energy and instead puts its energy
into making roots.
Top
THE NEXT AREA ERIC AND MATT DISCUSS IS POLLINATION. A lot of wonderful
plants like Roses and Daylilies are produced through controlled crosses
or hand pollination. The seeds are then collected from those and
planted out. Eric and Matt work with some beautiful Hemerocallis or
Daylilies and discuss the different parts of the plant. The stamen, or
anthers, is where the male structure of the plant is located. The long
tube is the female structure. Eric has 2 Daylilies. He wants to take
the dark purple colors in one Daylily and breed it into another Daylily
with a beautiful ruffled edge. Both plants are fantastic specimens.
What Eric does is take the pollen from one plant and transfer it to the
other plant and hope the traits of each plant transfers to the other
plant. He uses a little natural bristle brush and collects the pollen
from the male parts of the plant and then sprinkles that on the female
portion of the other plant. It's important that the plant doesn't
pollinate itself. Thus he emasculates or de-staminates the receiving
plant by taking the male parts off that plant so that all remains is
the pollen from the other. Oftentimes the flower will be covered with a
paper bag so that a bee, wind or something else doesn't spread
additional pollen from one plant to another. They will then wait until
they have a nice seed head, collect the seed, plant the seed and
hopefully they'll end up with a beautiful Hemerocallis with a ruffled
edge and a dark purple center.
Top
New Species
We've seen how new plants are produced and the work that goes into
taking a plant from a selection to production. WE NOW LOOK AT A NUMBER
OF NEW SPECIES. The question arises - what improvements have been made
for gardeners in the way of new plants. A number of new applications
have made life more interesting for the garden and gardener. An example
is Delosperma cooperi 'Ice Plant.' It is basically a species of Ice
Plant, with a nice, chartreuse, fuchsia flower. It is an excellent
plant but because of the bold color its use could be limited in the
garden. Thus a new cultivar of a hybrid Delosperma has been introduced.
Delosperma 'Mesa Verde' has an incredible coral orange color which is
brand new for Delosperma. One of the neat things is if you've got a
little bit of a warmer motif, if using reds, yellows and oranges in the
garden, the fuchsia might bring in too much contrast. Whereas the nice
orange will work better with that color scheme, making Delosperma
available to the gardener with that color scheme. It's a nice
improvement in Delosperma.
Top
New Foliage
We've seen examples where breeders have brought new colors to old
plants and developed a whole new application for that plant. THERE ARE
EXAMPLES OF SELECTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE FOR FOLIAGE TYPES. An
example is Buddleia, or Butterfly Bush, which has become a popular
plant for the summer garden. We view 3 different types of Buddleia. One
is a variegated form, Buddleia 'Santana' which has a beautiful yellow,
green look. Another, Buddleia crispa x loricata 'Silver anniversary'
has a nice silver whitish color. A third, Buddleia davidii 'Pyrkeep'
has a more typical green leaf. These provide an idea about different
applications from a design standpoint. If one has a garden with a lot
of rich blues and purples the kind of flash provided by the whitish
silver would make colors pop. By contrast, with a golden color design,
anything from gold to gold green, would be an excellent accent and
different from the silver in Silver Anniversary. The Purple Emperor has
more of a standard bloom type and standard foliage.
Top
PLANTS BRED FOR FORM
Another improvement that's been made with Buddleia is the wide range of
diversity and all have been introduced within the last 5 or 6 years.
Everything is changing rapidly and there is a lot of new stuff coming
down the pipeline. The dwarf Buddleia is an example. SEVERAL OTHER
PLANTS HAVE BEEN BRED SPECIFICALLY FOR THEIR FORM. Eric thinks some of
the most exciting plants bred in the past few years have been bred
primarily for form, although it does seem plants with neat foliage and
flowers get a lot more attention. For example, Eric's garden is small,
he doesn't have room for a Bald Cypress tree. Much work has been done
in this area. One example is Taxodium distichum 'Peve Minaret.'
Normally, Bald Cypress gets very large but this one will only reach 7
or 8 feet tall. It will work beautifully in a smaller space.
Ginkgo biloba 'Spring Grove' is a dwarf form of a Ginko. It will reach
3 or 4 feet tall where Ginko's typically get massive, 80 or 90 feet
tall, with huge trunks. But, since this stays 3 or 4 feet tall it opens
up many new areas where this plant can be utilized.
Japanese Black Pine, Pinus thunbergii "Thunderhead' is also bred for
its form. It's super dwarf and gets to only 8 to 10 feet tall. These
are wonderful for scenarios where one has a small or patio garden. They
work well in containers, thus it's a totally new application. In the
past no one would have thought about using this in a container because
inside a year or so the root system would have outgrown the container,
most likely breaking the container. Now these beautiful dwarf plants
can be used in brand new applications, like patio plantings, containers
or small gardens. They make a wonderful addition to the garden.
Top
Disease
ANOTHER IMPORTANT TRAIT BEING BRED INTO NEW PLANTS IS DISEASE FREE OR
LOW MAINTENANCE QUALITIES. These are plants that don't get covered in
powdery mildew, blight or whatever. A lot of work has taken place over
the past few years in breeding disease resistance back into plants. We
certainly don't want to put out more chemicals on our garden than
absolutely necessary and gardeners don't want to spend time treating
their plants, thus several plants are wonderful selections that have
been developed for their disease resistance and low maintenance. This
new work has allowed plants to be used in applications where they had
not been used before. The Rosa Double Knock Out 'Radtko' is an example.
It was bred specifically to be more disease resistant which for roses,
in particular, is very important. Roses had been waning in popularity
primarily due to how chemical intensive they were. The Knock Out has in
many ways revived the popularity of roses. Roses are becoming more
popular in the landscape because of the disease resistance that has
been bred back into them.
One of the first plants that led the charge from the standpoint of
disease resistance is Phlox paniculata 'David's Lavender.' Eric notices
another common garden Phlox and refers to it as an indicator plant. In
other words if you've got powdery mildew in your greenhouse or garden,
it will show up on this plant. Contrast it with the Phlox David which
has clean leaves. Phlox in the garden was not one of the better looking
plants from a foliage standpoint. Typically they would get a nice
flower but then decline rapidly from a standpoint of the foliar health.
It was just not attractive. Phlox David's Lavender is beautiful and
disease free. It has the same great flowers but is disease resistant.
It takes a lot off the gardener, not needing to keep the plants clean.
Top
NEW AND INTERESTING PLANTS
We've seen many new, exciting plants, learned where these plants come
from and how they go from the propagation bench out to the garden
center bench but ERIC NOW SHOWS US A FEW PLANTS INTRODUCED DURING THE
PAST FEW YEARS THAT ARE NEW AND INTERESTING. Hydrangea arborescens
'White Dome' is a nice white flower form of Lace Cap. It has a larger
bloom, a nice lacy look, is a little flatter and is rimmed by little
bracks to give it a dainty elegant look.
Gaillardia 'Oranges & Lemons' has one of the best flower forms and
certainly is one of the most persistent of all Gaillardias. It is an
electric orange and the plant blooms from early spring till November,
in Eric's garden.
Mimosa, Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' is unique. Who would
have thought several years ago that we would be planting a Mimosa in
our gardens? It's a great native tree, in the past primarily viewed as
a weed tree. A purple sport, they believe from Japan, started a new
application. It has a nice frilly leaf and black plants are excellent
for accents in the garden. It's another great addition.
The plant kingdom is an amazing thing. There is so much diversity, so
much interest and always new things happening as we cross pollinate and
as new sports arise. Basically most of what we do today is the result
of natural diversity in the plant world. Some may confuse that with
genetically modified plants which is not part of our landscape palette.
These plants are a result of cross pollinations or sports and represent
the natural diversity in the plant kingdom. We've seen some incredible
examples of brand new flower forms, different textures, different plant
forms and a lot of disease resistance that's been bred back into
plants. All this opens up brand new avenues for gardeners to try plants
they've never been able to try before and to experience plants in a
whole new way. So gardeners, get out there, take a look at what's going
on. There are many exciting new plants, a lot of stuff that's going on
with breeding work, a lot of interesting colors and great ways to use
plants in your garden. It's a great time to be a gardener.
Eric thanks Matt for his time. This has been a different show, a throw
back to those biology classes we slept through but hopefully these
ideas will resonate with us better today than in times past. Thanks
Matt for the insight.
Top
