Question
QUESTION: hi!!! i just wanted to ask you about process of getting new colors in geranium... many companies advertise new colors every year...i have geraniums of different types ..zonal ,stars ,double zonal etc... i just want to know the process of getting new colors from my geraniums ...is it possible to breed new color geraniums from the current geraniums which i have ? thanks

ANSWER: Ahmed,
I'm glad you're curious about how new plants come into being!  What plant breeders do is the selectively cross one color of plant with another. They'll put a fine cloth bag over the flowers they want to cross so that no other pollen from the air gets into the flower to fertilize it. Then they take the pollen from the plant they want to try, and brush it onto the one that was protected with the bag. Then they cover it with the bag again and wait to see if seeds develop. Once seeds develop they plant those seeds and see what grows, and what color flowers they have. If they get a plant that they like that has a new color flower, they take cuttings and propagate it that way, because if they planted seeds from that hybrid plant the resulting offspring would probably be like the offspring's grandparents, not like the new color that they took the seeds from.

Not all plants can be crossed - usually plants have to be in the same genus to pollinate each other. Your geraniums should all be in the genus Pelargonium, so they might work to cross one to the next if they are fertile and produce pollen, and have all their flower parts.

Sometimes plant breeders have to make hundreds of crosses and grow hundreds of baby plants to get one new one. But most love the process and the excitement of growing something new.

Here's a book about an American plant breeder who just decided to fool around with it and ended up developing many new plants that are still grown today: "The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants" by Jane S. Smith

Enjoy your geraniums!

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QUESTION: hi!!! sorry to disturb u again .... well i wanted to ask u one question abt pollination ...of geraniums .... i got ur messages and understood eevry thing ...but now when i m doing it practically i am having some prob and have questions in my mind .... what is the exact time of crossing it ... and i have heard that geranium are self pollinatery ....they pollinate themselves....so how can i stop them from pollinating them selves...??i mean in every flower of geranium there is female which accepts pollen ...t the same time ...male which produces pollen grain ...so how can i stop them from pollinating themselves....???in a nutshell...how can i stop them ...and what is the best time to cross pollen manually????

Answer
Ahmed,
No bother at all. You've hit on one of the obstacles of plant breeding. The timing is tricky because you have to put pollen on the stigma when it's ready to receive it, but before there is pollen there already from that same plant.  There is a good article on The Herb Companion website about the home plant breeding of Pelargoniums, the botanic name for geraniums.  You can see it here: http://www.herbcompanion.com/gardening/hybridizing-scented-pelargoniums.aspx

Although the article is about scented geraniums all the information pertains to what you are doing, and should be just what you need.  

Yes, it is possible to get new colors, but as that article points out, sometimes many attempts must be made. No matter what you get, however, it's satisfying to go through the process and to end up with plants that you grew from seed.  

Let me know how it all turns out,
C.L.