The Drawing Board
What does it take to produce a new variety?
Breeding and selection work is done
with many of the major groups of annual and perennial
garden plants, but with woody plants actual breeding is fairly limited apart from fruit trees
and roses. Many new introductions are chance seedlings or sports which appear
spontaneously and are then selected.
Most breeding is done by specialist nurseries and the occasional
enthusiast.
Hand pollinated magnolia seeds are sown
in open ground beds for one season then planted out to flower.
With magnolias, flowering may take from 2 to 8 years from seed followed by an
evaluation period and then bulking up of plant numbers to reach saleable
quantities.
For example:
A magnolia seedling shows promise so 5 grafts are taken the first year to start
bulking up plant numbers, then plants are propagated by budding twice a year to
build up numbers further. If the grafts each produce 3 shoots which yield 5 buds
each, then each bud propagated yields 5 buds on each cycle, the numbers build up
quickly.
Year 1:
75 summer budded seedlings produced as well as re-growth on the grafts for
spring budding.
Year 2:
75 more spring budded seedlings produce 375 buds for summer budding. Along with
these there are 375 buds produced from last years buds, as well as another 100
or so summer buds from the original grafts. At the end of year 2 we have 850
dormant buds to grow in year 3 for propagating the commercial crop, which is
then saleable at the end of year 4.
This is a conservative estimate and some varieties will branch much more freely in the first year which cuts a couple of years off the buildup cycle. As you can see, it is generally a slow process from the seed to the garden centre.
Naming New Varieties
A name should either conjure up a picture
in your mind's eye of some quality of the plant, stir the imagination, or tell a
story of the origin of the plant. A good name will often have several of these
qualities.
A good plant can be let down by a mediocre name and a good
name can market a mediocre plant well.
Good names should not be wasted on
mediocre plants.