Wanted: pollen of Gal. elwesii 'Big Boy'

[Martin Baxendale]

Since I mentioned on another thread that I'd like to use elwesii 'Big Boy' in my breeding programme, a fellow forumist has kindly offered to send me pollen when their bulb reaches flowering size next year, and recently another forumist generously sent me pollen of 'Rosemary Burnham', which made me think of making an appeal on the forum for pollen.

So, if anyone reading this has elwesii 'Big Boy' flowering this year and is prepared to cut out some ripe anthers and mail them to me, please get in touch. I have some crosses in mind that I'd like to try using 'Big Boy' and the sooner I can  get started the better. Also, the more pollen I can get the better, as I may have to try a number of different crosses depending on how fertile 'Big Boy' is as a pollen parent.

[Jo]

Good idea for a thread, the pollen exchange   I just bought Courteen Hall from Joe ( he says it is different from his Modern Art ) anyway its a nicley greened Viridapice type hyb.  And I took it out to my potful of random seedlings and pollinated them all with it 
I was amazed how much pollen comes from one flower and how intense the colour of snowdrop pollen is. Do all species of snowdrop have the same colour pollen ?
There was a lady there who wanted to buy Big Boy, Joe said he hadn't got any so I did tell her its on ebay at the mo

[Martin Baxendale]

Jo, some snowdrops seem to have darker yellow pollen and some paler, but always yellow. I don't know if the slight colour differences are due to varying fertility, variations in dryness or morphological differences between species.

[Jo]

Mmmm, I have a feeling that pollen colour is one of the ways of distinguishing between Cyclamen hederifolium and C africanum, the first is slatey and the second yellow ( without checking the refs ) thats why I asked