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Introduction

The following lists detail the historical state of our work. We list current work as three stages: pollinated, fruiting, and germinating. Hybridization success here is measured by harvested ripe berries resulting in germinated seeds.

Verified berry set on a cross is indicated with berries. Harvested seed awaiting germination is shown by seeds. Once we have seedlings, the listing will include sdlgs. Crosses listed will remain until berries begin forming or until the inflorescence aborts. Once a cross is verified to have failed (aborted), it will be deleted unceremoniously from the list below.

Some crosses shown below were successful through the seedling stage, but unfortunate subsequent events caused the seedling(s) to be lost. Since the cross did yield viable seedlings, however, I have left the listing as a confirmation that the cross has been performed successfully.

The first plant listed in each pair below is the ovule parent and the second one is the pollen parent.

2015 Hybridization Work

This year continues with prolific hybridization of meconostigma Philodendrons. As of June 2015, nearly all of the successful crosses are still ripening and not yet ready for harvest. However, new Alocasia hybrids using A. brisbanensis as one parent are already ripening up. Other Alocasia crosses involve A. heterophylla "Corazon", A. macrorrhizos "black petioled", my hybrid (Imperial Giant x Nyctedora), and an odora-longiloba hybrid that is very fecund and a compact grower. However, the most surprising cross this year is one I've done between what I believe to be two large Homalomena species, one with totally peltate leaves and the other with broad sagittate leaves - the berries are being set on the peltate plant which, incidentally, seems to produce no pollen, while the other parent produces copious amounts of pollen! The blooms are distinctively different in overall appearance and both plants enjoy marshy conditions with their pots sitting in trays of water.

2012, 2013 and 2014 Hybridization Work

So many new meconostigma Philodendron crosses were done during this period that I have not listed them. Most notably, I obtained seedlings of P. tweedianum and grew the plants to blooming size. Curiously, the blooms never produced pollen, but several successful crosses were accomplished using pollen from other meconostigmas. During this time I also did a number of crosses using pollen from P. xanadu, and discovered that the progeny do not turn out small even when the other parent is a dwarf grower. In fact, P. paludicola x P. xanadu yielded a giant of a plant, one far larger then either of the parents! A significant group of crosses using P. saxicola as one parent yielded viable progeny during this period, including P. paludicola x P. saxicola.

A notable Alocasia cross that was successful was A. odora x (A. macrorrhizos "Borneo Giant" x A. zebrina); the verification that the cross worked is the petiole mottling that has shown up in some of the seedlings. I was also able to cross A. odora successfully with the "Frydek-bullata", a Brian Williams hybrid from years ago.

Finally, I was able to complete a successful cross between A. odora and a hybrid of mine that I call "Imperial Dark", a cross of my Imperial Giant and Alocasia macrorrhizos "black petiole type". This cross yielded a number of hardier black petioled odora hybrids, as well as many intermediate color types. The ultimate in color, though, has to be my Imperial Knight, the closest to a true "black Mac" I've been able to achieve through hybridization. The Imperial Knight needs only to be crossed with A. odora to complete my objective of a hardier all-dark Alocasia. Imperial Knight is a cross of Imperial Dark and an unnamed Alocasia I had been calling the "brown sinuata", having leaves with dark brownish petioles and blades with a wash of brown color on the undersides. Several seedlings from this cross came out all dark, with nearly black leaf undersides and petioles.

2011 Hybridization Work

We've started new work on Meconostigma Philodendron hybrids involving a new (for us) species, P. paludicolum and a series of crosses involving a hybrid of P. eichleri and an unusual P. bipinnatifidum clone from Robert Chumley. Our P. saxicola continues growing apace, but will not be mature enough for hybridizing this year, unless it blooms very near the end of 2011.

Another focus for this year's work is extensive Caladium hybridization, especially involving crosses between the Thai hybrids and Western hybrids. Not to be left out is our continuing work with the genus Alocasia, with which we hope to succeed at last in developing a black or dark-petioled plant with A. odora as one of the parents (for greater cold resistance).

2010 Hybridization Work

This year, we resumed development of new Meconostigma Philodendron hybrids. We have also just begun hybridization with the genus Typhonium. We hope to develop easy to grow plants with colors reminiscent of the early Caladium hybrids.

So far only one Alocasia hybrid cross has seemed to take, but it is a unique 4 species hybrid. Many of our 2009 and 2008 hybrid plants are not yet up to blooming size due to the exceptionally cold winter, so our plan to develop 5-species and 6-species Alocasia hybrids this year cannot be implemented yet.

We have completed a second series of successful crosses between the Western Caladium hybrids and the Thai Caladiums. So far we have germinated seeds using two different Thai varieties and two Western hybrids. One of the Western varieties is the Caladium "Red Flash" and the other is a hybrid developed at Aroidia.

2009 Hybridization Work

2009 was the year for complex hybrids involving 3 to 4 species. Already we have plants of several three-species hybrids, and are awaiting growth to maturity of a few hybrids involving four species. Additionally, we are completing work with A. watsoniana and both A. odora and our hybrid, Alocasia "Imperial Giant".

This year we also completed our first successful cross between a Western Caladium and a Thai Caladium.

The year 2010 holds promise for even more complex hybrids involving 5 or more species.

2009 Hybridization Results

2008 Hybridization Results

2007 Hybridization Results

2006 Hybridization Results

Note: Anthurium faustino-mirandae berries take over a year to ripen!

2005 Hybridization Results

Hybridization Work in Prior Years

Before Hurricane Andrew struck us in August 1992 (period 1980 to 1992), we had completed a number of crosses both with the genus Alocasia and the genus Philodendron. Among them were our legacy hybrids, the Calidora and Portora Alocasias. A number of years were spent in assembling the original research collection that was subsequently nearly destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.

During the years between Hurricane Andrew and the 2005 results above, new infrastructure and a new, expanded, research collection was built back to the point where our work could resume.

Be sure to visit our page, Wilma's Oktoberfest, showing what Wilma did to us.

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