Hi guys,
This has become ridiculous! But still good fun!
Yes you can easily do 16k combos in 37 years! And yes Tim is correct this is a lot easier than you guys think! Also the more Aloes you have the easier it is to do more combos.
We don’t do this to drown the world in Aloe hybrids or to impress anyone; Andy and I eat, sleep and breathe Aloe hybrids! Yes we are obsessed!! We have the resources too; large farm in subtropical area with plentiful cheap labor (the joys of Africa….).Andy owns and runs a nursery in SA which more often than not subsidizes our Aloe activities! Our activities are mostly confined to SA and we do this primarily for our own pleasure. It’s definitely not done to create confusion; we have records dating back to Andy’s beginning with Aloes! All combo’s/parentage are recorded; every aloe has its parentage attached. You guys only seem to think simple or semi complex hybrids are worthwhile, you just can’t imagine what can be created with super complex Aloe hybrids. I will get around to posting some more photo’s at some point. Also keep in mind that I am a full time horticulturist, I don’t just do this stuff as a sideline hobby.
Matt, the two most prolific and advanced breeders of medium and large Aloe hybrids created for flowers are in South Africa (Mmm, that statement will probably cause another uproar!)Each of them has 37 years experience Aloe breeding! I am excluding myself as I work for one of them. Matt we do our selections mostly on flowers but there are other criteria, plant shape, vigor, disease resistance etc etc We do have a few named and plant breeders rights protected Aloe hybrids distributed in SA. When I talk about a combo I mean for example candelabrum x arborescens , that equals one combo regardless of whether you get 1 or a 1000 seedlings from that particular combo. I was referring to combos made not seedlings raised, seedlings raised is much much more staggering!
You think our numbers sound mad? Top rose breeding companies create up to 40 thousand seedlings a year and only select 1-2 winners for the market from that!! and all the others are destroyed...
We definitely don’t use the hummingbird/bee technique; personally don’t believe in it even though it can yield amazing results. Crops like Crocosmia have been done mostly like this.
Kelly, our Aloe work has gained a lot of momentum since you were in SA, if you come again do visit us. We have some fragrant varieties but nothing I am truly satisfied with and the more you hybridize them the less fragrant they become which is annoying.
Attached for interest is one of Andy’s old attractive bi-color hybrids, Aloe “Charles”
Regards
From hot sunny South Africa
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