Camellia - Hybridisation

Anyone can hybridise two different Camellia varieties when they are in flower to create a new hybrid (or rather lots of new hybrids) of your own.

You will need two select 2 different Camellias that you wish to try to make a hybrid from. They both need to be in flower. Because you need to bring the two flowers together to make the hybrid you will need to cut one flower from one of the plants. (We will call this one Cam-1) The other flower you need to leave on the tree. (This one is Cam-2)
 

1.Select Cam-1 flower, not yet fully open.

2. Bring Cam-1 flower into the warm to encourage pollen production.

3. Remove petals to expose anthers.

4. Cam-1 with petals removed and anthers covered in pollen.

5. Select Cam-2, find a flower on tree, which is not fully open.

6. Open flower to check for insects, if present chose another flower.

7. Carefully remove the anthers on Cam-2, leaving the stigma.

8. Dust the pollen from Cam-1 onto the stigma of Cam-2.

9. Remove all the petals on Cam-2 leaving the stigma covered in pollen.

10. Remove a few of the leaves from the stem

11. Remove a few of the leaves from the stem

12. Place bag carefully over, taking care to not damage stigma

13. All bagged up, wait until Autumn.

When you look in October or November you might be lucky enough to find a seed pod, which when it splits you will see the black/brown seeds.
 

Read more about storing seeds and propagating them.