THE “ THOUGHTS” OF CAMELLIA HYBRIDIZATION IN MY BACKYARD

John T. Wang, California, U.S.A.

I am so delighted being here. I was born in China many years ago. Finally after over 50 years, I am home. Besides, it is a great opportunity for me to make new camellia friends. I will take notes from many camellia experts here in the convention.

I live in Northern California, very close to the San Francisco Bay area. I love to grow camellias. You can see that I have to use automatic drip system to water my plants. Because there is almost no one drop of rain from May to September.

Later I found that it is even more fascinating to develop new camellia flower varieties.

I tag my seedling plants with a bright color code so I can spot them far away. Red indicates that the seedling produces fragrant flower. The yellow is for yellow flower. White means white reticulata hybrid.

I like to tie a ribbon on the branch indicating that a new seedling is going to have the first flower. I certainly do not want to miss that moment. I always use a very simple method to manage my seedling plants.

Here is my gardener (deer). He is trying very hard to find a chance to prune my camellia.

My professional training is not in horticulture. My specialty is actually processing milk and manufacturing milk products. This is our milk plant in LA area. I have a very busy schedule to visit many milk plants in the US and Canada.

Do you know that running milk plant and producing camellia plants share the same principle? If you can figure out how to produce a very beautiful camellia flower, you can also figure out how to produce the best milk.

Every year, we see that many new camellias are being introduced. You might wonder how they do it. Here is a new flower winning the best fragrant seedling award last year. Behind every nice new flower, there is a dedicated camellia breeder. With a very close observation of many camellia friends I can count there are at least six different types of camellia breeders:

Number 1 type is the most efficient and productive camellia breeder. That is Mr. Frank Pursel. He only use three original parent plants to produce 112 named reti hybrids.

You all know the flower, “ Jean Pursel” . This red one is called “ Frank pursel” .

Dr. Hagmann sets the highest standard for selecting camellia flowers.

He selects only one out of 1000 of his seedlings to name it “ Ruta Hagmann". Then he retired from camellia hybridization. He received the highly honored “ Harris Hybrid Award".

Number 3 type is Mr.Ken Hallstone. He has only one focused goal that is to produce different fragrance profiles from different camellia species. Here is his garden; all the flowers in this area have different degrees of fragrance. Bob Ehrhart looks very relaxed. He lets the bees and the nature to do the cross－ pollination work. Later he just picks the seeds and grows them. He keeps about 1,500 of his open seedling plants. So far he has selected only five nice seedlings.

The Number five type camellia breeders belong to “ Alice in wonderland" club. Many camellia breeders are in this group. They love to develop beautiful new flower, yet the reality is always very hard. There is always disappointment. However, this camellia breeder might surprise us to present us a fantastic new flower.

The last type breeder has a noble purpose. The camellia hybridization is purely for scientific study such as plant hardiness, color pigment or for superior tea oil. It has little to do with a show flower.

Honestly, nobody can tell you what type camellia breeder is better or what flower is best. The importance is that you set your own direction and enjoy your work. If many of us diversify our objectives and apply different methodology in camellia hybridization, the benefits can be enormous for all of us.

Today I want to share with you two simple ideas that affect why I do it and how I do it in camellia hybridization. It has been a gradual learning process for me. My first 8 years was totally searching in the dark and I start to see the light in the tunnel in recent 8 years.

The ＃ 1 idea is a famous motto from Beijing opera “ A great person should think over three times before he makes a move." In the other words, we should have a best plan first. Why? A new seedling takes about 5 years to see the first flower and at least another three years to evaluate the flower. In my lifetime I do not have many 8 years to waste.

There is an important prerequisite for hybridization plan. That is to learn more about camellia plants, especially about genetics and species compatibility. I often dig the research articles from old ACS reference and study the areas in my mind.

＃ 2 idea, camellia hybridization is a game of playing dice called “ probability".

When you want produce a best dream flower, just like that you want the winning numbers, all dices showing 6,6,6＆ 6. Color is 6. The flower form is 6. The petal shape is 6 and the size is 6.

Each genetic trait is like a dice. Red color has many kinds of red. Dice number can be 1,2,3,4,5and 6.

If there is only one trait and it has six variables. So your chance to win is one out of six.

If there are two traits under the same condition, one out of 36 is your chance.

If it has four traits, the number will be whooping to 1,296 seedlings in order to have the most desirable flower. Actually I make it looked worse than it should. May be about 10 ％ of the seedling flowers are very attractive. We may think that we have already accomplished our objectives. Because we never know what is the best flower. Through a tough selection process of the traits of parent plants, we can reduce the variables. That means we play only two dices, not four dices, therefore we have a better chance to win.

Now I have to make it clear, I put the emphasis on these two simple ideas for myself. You may have a different concept or different point of view. We all do. What is important is whatever works for you. Let me show you a few examples how the simple ideas affecting the work I do and I think.

There are so many red and pink flowers. So I set my objectives on a less developed territory such as fragrant flower, yellow flower and blush white reticulata hybrids. Obviously I might have a better chance.

I select and collect the best possible mother plants according to my objectives. They should be very fertile. I keep a few large plants in healthy condition in order to produce many nice looking seeds. Every single seed is my hope. If I have less seed, then I have less hope.

Early in the season, I gib the flowers at different time in order to have fresh pollen supply consistently. You can see that I cover each flower from rain in order to keep the pollen dry.

Sometimes, I intend to produce a seedling having many nice flower petals. I have been trying very hard to search for pollen from “ formal double" or “ rose form double" flowers. So I might have a better chance to produce that type flower. On the other hand, single flower is very easy to find. But a real good single flower is extremely hard to produce.

You must know that you don't have to wait for years for your desirable pollen plant to grow. Just ask your friend mail the pollen to you. You can get it to work immediately.

Weather does not affect my work. I like to set seed in my warm living room. It is worth the extra work. If you have a professional green house to work, You increase your chance to win.

Before every camellia season, I spend time to figure out all possible matching and gradually screen the number to only a few best matching. Many seeds of identical－ cross are harvested. I germinate all the seeds and grow all of them into large plants. Then I have a very good chance to select one of the best flowers. Usually, I do not grow open seeds. I do not select one seed from each seed pot to grow. If the seed is meaningless to me, I do not want to bother it at all. So I can preserve my energy sand resources.

I can speed up one to two years to see my first flower by close grafting the young seedlings immediately in April

High Fragrance is a great fragrant camellia. We can use identical good pollen on many selected mother plants to produce fragrant flower. I found that some mother plants have tendency to enhance fragrance. Some plants tend to block the fragrance. My seedling WF3 also has C. lutchuensis parentage. I am still searching for more enhancement mother plants to produce new fragrant flowers.

The fragrance of Salab is different from High Fragrance. It needs heat to activate the fragrance. Salab is a good seed setter. WF1 is my first fragrant seedling produced by Salab. Some Higo flower has a wonderful fragrance detected even at lower temperature. It is nice that camellia have many different kinds of fragrance.

This seedling of mine, WF＃ 8, is under evaluation. It has very nice fragrance; the size, the color, petal substance and even the appearance are appealing. But the center petals are not neatly arranged. I will do many similar crossing to produce many similar seedlings. I might have a chance to produce a better one later.

I can use my finger to count how many named white reti flowers: these are Baby Face, Snow Beauty recently developed here in China, Fancy Pants, white reti and Suzanne Withers. Now suddenly I have developed at least 20 blush white reti seedlings. So far six seedlings have bloomed. Five are very fertile to set seeds. So I would expect more and better white reti hybrids are coming in the future.

C. nitidissima can be pollen parent and seed parent plant. The F1 flower has good size and refreshing color. But yellow is still not deep enough yet. Back cross seedlings are here and many new ones are coming. We might see deeper yellow flowers.

Mr. Ken Hallstone developed this japonica seedling. I have evaluated the flower for five years. It produces consistently eye－ catching flowers. I plan to name this one as Hallstone's Yellow.

Ken also produced this japonica flower. It has a nice blend of cream center. This flower is still under my evaluation.

Now, I would like to sum up my experiences on camellia hybridization in orderly and practically proceeding, It might be a practical reference for amateur camellia breeders.

First of my experiences is that I have clear objectives or directions on my camellia breeding, that are fragrant, yellow and unique new cultivars.

Second is that I have a set of feasible (practical) methods to hybridize my camellias. The methods are: (1) Selection of parent plants: It is really up to the objectives, such as flower coloration and petal appearance must be considered. Of course a fertile seed setter will be needed. Sometimes it may be necessary to produce a “ Bridge Plant" or “ stepping stone" first with which to reach our objectives. If we keep on trying and a few tough flowers may set seed. (2) Preparation of plant: Apply gibberellic acid on some large flower buds of a seed setter plant early in one day. But apply gibberellic acid on flower bud of pollen plant early but at different intervals of times, in order to produce constant supply of fresh pollen. If so, the plants will be ready for crossing in December. (3) Pollination: a spare room equipped with an enclosed electric heater keeping the room at 75 degrees F is used, in which the pollination task becomes an all weather, day and night operation. The seed setter plants (2 to 10 gal in size) are moved into the warm room just before flower buds to open. Plastic trays are placed to protect the floor. Usually, the plants should not be put in the room for more than 15 days in order to prevent leaves dropping. Also, the plant should be kept in the warm room for about five days after crossing. The name of the pollen plant and the date are both marked on the two adjacent leaves next to the flower. The pollens are dusted on stigma gently and the same process may be repeated later if it is necessary. The flower is not covered after pollination. After crossing the flowers and keeping them in warm room for about five days, the plant is moved back to open backyard to have a natural rain shower. In the warm room, flowers are speeded up to bloom in a much shorter duration. It definitely helps the biochemical reactions to set seed. (4) Simple tools: A reverse－ tension tweezer is handy to hold a filament of fresh pollen. A very large magnifying glass helps to see the pollination. A good head flashlight is a must for surgical operation on the flower. A pair of finger scissors would make it easier to remove the petals and filaments neatly. A narrow strip of kleenex tissue can be finger－ rolled into the shape as tooth pick. This soft tool is used to transfer the stored pollen from a gelatin capsule on the tip of flower styles, a disposable tool after use. (5) Cares for seed setter plants: Keep the plants at a best location in your yard. Too much sunlight, too windy, improper watering schedule, poor potting mix and lacking proper fertilizing can affect the quality of the seeds. Watch out squirrels! They can chew off all the seeds in a very short time. The seed pots will be wrapped with hair net or old nylon stockings secured with a cloth pin during later growing season.

Third is to make the seeds germinate. Usually the seed of C. japonica is harvested first when the seed pot starts cracking, then C. reticulata and C. nitidissima finally. I carefully crack the seed shell order to speed up germination time and to observe whether the seed is well developed. I use small fir bark and plastic trays on heating mat to avoid over heating. 100％ ground peat moss (not too wet) and clean and sanitized plastic containers are suitable for culturing the seeds. Many seeds from the same cross can be crowed placed in the same container, just under top level of the media. Cover the container and maintain them at 75 to 78 degrees F. When the stem is up over one half inch, I transplant the young seedlings into one gallon container. Six to eight seedlings can be planted in a circle in one gal container. One gal pot provides stability on heat and moisture in the potting mix. When the leaves are opening, only a pinch of a none burning fertilizer ( 20－ 27－ 5) is used to spread it evenly on the top. The seedlings are watered by hand, once per week. The water also is fortified with trace amount of chelated iron. The seedlings may reach 4 to 7 inches in height in April. Then you can put each seedling individually into one gal pot. If the seedlings grow slowly, you have to let them in the pot for one year. Also, you can select the strong seedlings and make a close graft on a large under stock respectively. This method may cut down one year of the waiting time to see the first flower. Due to environmental variation, some of my ways to breed new camellia might be totally meaningless to apply them in your backyard. Therefore, you should make some adjustments according to your micro－ environment.

In my conclusion, I am trying as efficient as possible to develop new camellias. Keep my work simple, less wasting and more productive. It seems I have learned more to develop new camellia plants. Actually the nature does most work for me. It seems I know exactly direction I am going. But often I ask myself whether am I on the right path? Even I have my defined objectives. After all, I have no idea about how my new flower looks like until the flower is open.

These must be all the intricate reasons why I got hooked on camellia hybridization.