The beauty of most of the plant families that we enjoy has been greatly enhanced over the years through the diligent efforts of hybridizers. Our bromeliad plant family is no exception, and we could make a long list of beautiful hybrids that have already been made; and there are many more being made. These are made possible by the gene resources from the beautiful species and hybrids that we have. Hybridization makes it possible to mix these genes and develop many variations of plants that would not otherwise not exist.

Quite frequently, when I am speaking to garden clubs or visiting with friends about bromeliad hybrids and mention that I had made some, I get the question "How do you make hybrids?". I usually start my explanation by saying that it would be much easier for them to understand the process if they knew about "the birds and the bees". Then you would know that in order to make a cross between two plants you must take the pollen from the flower of one plant and apply it to the pistil of the other plant's flower. Simple enough? Well, it gets a little more involved if you want to make sure that you have actually made a cross between the two plants. First, lets take a look at the arrangement of the male and female parts of the flower. The pistil (female part) is located in the center of the flower with the stamens (male parts) surrounding it. The pollen is released by the anthers which are located at the tips of the stamens. To fertilize the flower the pollen must be placed and adhere to the stigma which is located at the tip of the pistil. The stigma is only receptive to pollen for a short period of time while the flower is fully open (usually about mid- morning). You may have to apply pollen more than once during this time to increase the chances for conception.

In most neos the stigma is on the same level or above the anthers which keeps them from self pollinating. However, if you are applying pollen from another flower there is a possibility that you will stir up the pollen on the targeted flower (unless the pistil is well above the stamens) causing it to self pollinate. To avert this you can emasculate the targeted flower by carefully removing its stamens before the pollen ripens (usually early morning or the night before the flower fully opens). The pollination can be made with something small, a brush or even a toothpick, that the pollen will adhere to and can be easily transferred to the small pistil. You may want to make multiple crosses to the same plant while it is blooming. Make only one cross per bloom and identify its pollen parent by placing a small label in the pollinated flower.

If the pollination is successful, seeds will begin to develop in the ovary beneath the flower and mature in about 3 months.

It usually takes me 4 or 5 years from the time the seeds are planted to obtain mature plants. You can probably cut at least a year from this schedule by pushing the seedlings with a continuous fertilization program. You can also do a lot of selection and a considerable amount of culling before the plants mature if you are able to grow them in good light.

All crosses are not successful, and to justify our efforts, we need to do what we can to increase our odds. This involves selecting the best parents, and effective pollination. Be sure to keep good records so that you will know the parentage of any worthwhile hybrids that you make.

What are we trying to do? Some people have definite goals to develop a plant with a certain color and a good shape. Others are looking for colorful foliage and a beautiful inflorescence, or maybe an unusual shape with different colors. The least we can do is pick two plants with some good qualities and hope that we can pass some good qualities from one plant and combine them with good qualities of the second plant.

In many cases we increase the odds of meeting our goals by doing a little research on existing hybrids. there are several species that frequently pass desirable genes that predominate in crosses made with other plants. These genes control such characteristics as size, shape, color, markings, or length of stolons. Some good neoregelia examples of this are: wilsoniana (stolons, shape, size), pauciflora (stolons, shape, size), kautskyi (color), olens 'vulcan' (spots), and concentrica (shape). With a little time we could come up with many more examples. Things get more complicated when we start using hybrids as parents because of the increased mix of genes that will be competing for dominance in the new cross. In crosses made using hybrids you can expect to see a lot more variation in seedlings made from this one cross than you would when two species are used.

My efforts thus far have been limited to the neoregelias that are in bloom at the same time. If your objective is to cross plants that bloom at different times, pollen can be saved from the flower of the first plant by freezing it to be used when the second plant blooms.