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Looking forward to seeing the photos John!

new pic's in Matt

Great pics as always.I also look forward! BTW I like the nep on the final picture its left.

Yes, great pics John!

Matt , Linton and all
Well it seems the Heliamphora flower I pollinated is showing signs of the ovary swelling what do others think about these pic's , its not like others I have seen in these flowers so far so I am hopping its has taken fingers crossed

Yesss!!! The sweet taste of success should be in your mouth right now John! Well done!

Well tried it again Matt on another Heliamphora flower , pollination that is , the stigma was clear on the receptor , but once pollen applied it turned a brown or darker colour , I figure this indicates that the pollen has been excepted , once again must wait and see the result for conformation
J

Well done, John! Good job.

ok a update on the pollinated heliamphora flower, it has swollen up quite nicely now a pic below to show its progress , have pollinated other flowers now , seems its quite easy to do so from what I see, juts takes on short brush stroke with pollen and its done, the receptor changes colour with in several hours and its done , but it must be pollinated well before the actual flower is open fully or its to late , when the flower has just opened and there is a small opening about 1/2 to 1 cm the pollen can be presented to the receptor and its done
J
just added a few pictures of a flower ready to be pollinated receptor is clear hope you can all see it

from my experience in cross pollination of other flowers
cant you keep pollen on a cotton ball in a jar? and it will stay good?

that has worked for me with all kinds of other flowers and they pollen was still just as good as when i first got it when i used it for cross pollination.

Thanks for the incredible photos John. This thread is by far the best source of information on the entire internet relating to Heliamphora pollination!

Great job John and nice pics too. Keep us updated, please!
Cheers,
D

alabama wrote:from my experience in cross pollination of other flowers
cant you keep pollen on a cotton ball in a jar? and it will stay good?

that has worked for me with all kinds of other flowers and they pollen was still just as good as when i first got it when i used it for cross pollination.

Hi Collection of pollen from Heliamphora flowers is a bit of a process , using a tuning fork, timing is paramount as the pollen is ripe for a short time , ,and only after the flower has been pollinated or even its its not been pollinated it seems.

The flower is ripe to pollinate before the pollen is ripe in the flower , so your first flower will not be pollinated, its just to collect the pollen, for self pollination or ready for cross pollination's ,this is a learning experience for me to, so if I find some thing has not worked or needs to be changed I will do so as I go, so far what I have been doing seems to be working
with pollen storage I tried it on paper in the fridge but it was had to work it when it was cold ?? seems best at air temp, easier to apply, so now I buzz it on to the inside lid of a specimen jar ,and keep the jar inverted in a storage draw in my green house ,as the flowers open some 3 to 4 weeks apart some times less , so the pollen doesn't need to be stored for a long time , but I guess this apply if you have many plants , if only one or 2 plants it could be different if you need to store the pollen for some time , but I find for me the flowers come very regularly and for most of the year ,if lot's of sun in available.
Have no experience with heliamphora pollen storage as yet , guess it will be trial and error for that one , did read that some have stored it in the fridge for some period of time warped in tinfoil and a zip lock bag ?? but as I dont need to yet it may be a process I will have to do at some time further down the track, sorry not much help there !! may be I will do a trial and see how it stores as I have lots of pollen on hand ,as the different plants produce flowers this spring will do collections and trial storage , and will post what I fine as I go,as I try more cross pollinations , should be interesting but time consuming !!
J

Good work on the successful pollination John & thanks for sharing the nice clear photos. I have found an easy way to collect the pollen from the flowers - I gently bend the flowers on the stalk so that they are facing upwards instead of hanging downwards (be careful as the stalks are brittle) and then buzz the stamens with the tuning fork. The pollen will be released and most of it will come to rest on the inside of the petals. It can then be mopped up with a small brush and either used immediately or stored for later use.

Linton any success with your pollination yet !!