TAMING WILD FLOWERS: A RAPID ROUTE TO NEW GARDEN PLANTS

This method is based on two working assumptions: 1) Genes providing essential survival qualities for a population are not recessive, and 2) Biochemical or physical adaptations to different conditions are non-competitive and will not often be expressed on the same gene(s).
A breeder may thus hope that a wide cross may combine a summer-dormant desert wildflower’s heat and drought tolerance and early blooming with the hardiness, water-borne disease resistance and later bloom period of a winter-dormant close relative living next to a mountain meadow.
The perennial Bush-Mimulus (M. aurantiacus) of this report have been collected from the physical and edaphic edges of their range: over 11 degrees of latitude, (2000 km North/South), at altitudes from 10 to 2000 meters, from environments with 25 to 150 centimetres average annual rainfall, and annual temperatures ranging from -15 to +45 °C. Numerous examples with desirable horticultural features have also been obtained from selected mid-range populations.
Crossing this large group has created a wide genetic pool of interfertile variants.
Selecting and breeding from this group, their progeny, and their greenhouse sports has generated many hybrid cultivars with traits not found in the wild species, such as good growth habit, tolerance of garden conditions, extended bloom period, and novel colours.