Monday, July 4, 2011

Random plant event: Aglaonema 'Maria' fruit

I had three Aglaonema varieties ('Gold Dust,' 'Maria,' 'Silver Queen') all flowering at once a few months ago, so I got out the old paintbrush and tried cross-pollinating. It wasn't that I expected anything terribly useful to come of it, but that was during the period when I was trying to cross everything I had, and there were flowers, so I figured why not try.

Most of the flowers have subsequently dried up and dropped, and so far only one appears to have done anything. Still, though, there is the one:


I assume sprouting the seeds will work more or less the same way it did for the Anthurium seedlings, should I be so lucky as to get viable seeds. While I'm on the subject, the first batch of Anthurium berries (from 'Gemini') look like they're going to be ripe soon, and there are many berries from Anthurium 'Pandola' coming right behind that.


3 comments:

Zach said...

Cool deal! How long are you going to wait before harvesting the berries? I was told the berries are ripen when they start to fall off. So I've been waiting about 6 months for my berries to ripen... FWIW, I didn't do any pollinating and my Aglaonema was the only one in bloom at that time, so it must have been self-fertile.

mr_subjunctive said...

Zach:

I don't know. Anthurium berries start to change color when they're close to ripe, but I have no experience with Aglaonema; I don't know if they'll change color too. I suppose I'll have to poke at them occasionally and see if they come off on their own.

It's definitely possible that these berries are a 'Maria' x 'Maria' cross; I tried crossing everything that had flowers, but there were way more 'Maria' flowers than either of the other two, so if selfing is possible, then selfing is probably what I have.

Unknown said...

Interesting. My plant produced berries and it is a loner.