Breeding bulbous and bulbotuberiferous flower crops at the Subtropical Scientific Centre of RAS

Abstract

Bulbous and bulbotuberiferous plants are the most popular flower crops among amateur flower growers, florists, landscape designers, introducers and breeders. These crops collected by the Federal Research Centre the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences include both foreign and domestic cultivars. Breeding work within these collections has been carried out for more than 50 years, for many – for the first time in the country. The obtained cultivars are not inferior in decorative qualities to foreign ones, and they are superior in resistance. Currently, due to the limited import of foreign planting material, the demand for domestic products has significantly increased. This paper presents the results of research conducted over the last 15 years. During this period, researchers have created more than 90 cultivars of freesia, hippeastrum and tulip; an extensive hybrid fund has been collected; sources of economically valuable traits have been allocated. Currently, xiphium and crocus are included in the breeding process. In the course of the research, bulbous and bulbotuberiferous flower crops collected by FRC SSC of RAS have been replenished with 26 domestic highly decorative cultivar samples, productive and resistant to abiotic and biotic factors, including 22 freesias, 2 hippeastrums and tulips. New cultivars are different in flowering terms: 7 of them have an early flowering term, 11 – with an average, 8 – with a late one. There are six groups according to the main colour of the perianth lobes: white – 4 cultivars, yellow – 5, red – 3, medium blue – 4, pink-purple – 8, black – 2.