How to Hand Pollinate Adenium
Adenium obesum is a flower of vibrant color from Arabia and Africa. The plant presents as both shrubs and trees. Cross-pollination of Adeniums is a common practice, since the flower has such showy colors that are a joy to mix through hybridization. Horticulturalists use multiple methods to cross-pollinate Adeniums. It's best to start off with a simple approach if you are a beginner. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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1
Cut open a flower that you want to pollinate from.
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Locate the pollen in the tiny chamber immediately below the hairy filaments at the top of the central flower structure.
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3
Wet the tip of a toothpick with water and scoop off some pollen. You may need a magnifying glass to verify that you actually got some onto your toothpick.
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4
Cut the corolla of the receiving flower vertically from the circular edge at the top downward about three-quarters of an inch.
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Fold the corolla back and over on itself to expose the inner structure of the flower.
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Locate the "gel cap," which is a silvery pearl-like bead right under the pollen chamber.
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Tap the toothpick to knock pollen onto the surface just under the gel cap. This is called the "receptive surface" because it receives the pollen.
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Fold up the corolla again, join the severed sides where you cut it, and tape it shut with adhesive tape to reduce its trauma. In a week or two, you'll see seedpods growing in pairs out from the base of the flower like little horns.
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Tips & Warnings
According to Lap Huynh at FlowerPictures.net, experts believe that you need two Adeniums to produce seedpods. So even if you aren't interested in cross-pollinating, but just pollinating, this technique may be necessary without the help of pollinating insects.
