Unravelling "Open Pollinated"

It may not mean what you think it does

With the arrival of Floret Originals we have seen an increase in interest in seed saving and breeding. If you follow growers in the US or are part of any Floret Fan Clubs you will have seen many people growing and now trying to save seed from their Floret Original zinnias and celosia. As Floret have announced that they have no current plans to release seeds for sowing in 2025, the ability to save seeds, or trade for seeds with other growers, is paramount.¹

However, increasingly I have seen that there is one phrase in particular that is being used in a myriad of ways and has the potential to cause confusion and disappointment: open pollinated.

As Australia now has access to the Floret Originals we can anticipate that we will see this issue replicated here next autumn and winter so I want you to be able to approach it with some awareness and preparedness.

What’s the Problem?

The crux of the problem, and the TL;DR of this entire post, is that Open Pollinated has two distinct meanings - and they are opposites of each other.

Meaning One: seeds that will "breed true"

Meaning Two: seeds that have not been isolated or controlled in their pollination - meaning the resulting offspring could have unknown traits and not come back true from saved seed.

Some Quick Terminology

Genus, species, variety and cultivar are each different taxonomical ranks of plants that we use to help organise them. Understanding the difference can help you understand the genetics of your plants, and help with understanding seed saving.

Family: A wide umbrella that encompases many different Genus of plants. They have unifying identifying factors that tie them together. The plant families are sometimes revised and can change. You can spot a family name because it ends in eae. Example: Asteraceae commonly known as the Daisy, Aster, Composite, or Sunflower family.

Genus: Different lines in the family - think of them like flower cousins. Eg. Zinnia and Dahlia are both genus in the Asteraceae family.

Zinnias and Dahlias - not just perfect bouquet buddies, but two members of the large Asteraceae family.

Species: is a grouping of individuals capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. That is: two plants that are the same species can be crossed with each other and will make fertile offspring (eg. Zinnia elegans x Zinnia elegans). Sometimes different species in a genus can cross with each other, and sometimes they cannot. Eg Zinnia elegans & Zinnia grandiflora are different species.

“Genus species” is how we write the latin name of a plant. We capitalise the Genus (Zinnia) and do not capitalise the species (elegans) and we italicise or underline the whole thing.² From here on out when I say ‘Zinnia’ I mean Zinnia elegans - this is the one we mostly, but not exclusively, use for cut flowers.

Variety: below species. Sometimes used interchangeably with cultivar, but this is not entirely accurate. Generally a variety will refer to a variation in a plant species that develops naturally in the environment, that is, without human intervention. Often, seeds from a variety will grow true to type.

Cultivar: what most of us actually mean when we refer to a ‘variety’. A cultivar has been selected via human intervention for certain traits and will retain those traits when propagated (either by seed, cutting, or division).
eg. Zinnia elegans ‘Floret Unicorn’ or Zinnia elegans cv. Floret Precious Metals

When writing the full latin name and indicating a cultivar, we italicise the latin name, and put cv. to indicate cultivar, or put the cultivar name in single quotation marks. The cultivar name is not italicised, and each word in the cultivar name is capitalised.

Don’t worry - you don’t need to remember all of that to get a basic understanding of seed saving and hybridising, but hopefully having the gist will help.

Open Pollinated v F1 Hybrid

The first type of ‘Open Pollinated’ is how we describe a cultivar that has been stabilised and will come back true if you save seed from it.

Some might be more familiar with the term ‘Heirloom Variety’ when thinking about this type of cultivar. It is fair to say that all Heirloom Varieties that can be grown from seed are Open Pollinated, however not all Open Pollinated cultivars will meet the criteria to be an Heirloom as this often means the cultivar must have originated some time ago (pre-1945 is a common date) or at least been passed down from generation to generation.

This can be compared to seeds sold as an F1 hybrid which signifies that the cultivar comes from a particular cross, and so saving seed from that cultivar does not guarantee that the offspring will be the same - even if that cultivar is isolated from other members of the species and does not cross pollinate. Some f1 hybrids are also sterile, meaning they won’t set seed or will set infertile seed.

Johnny’s has a really neat explanation so I’m going to pop it here:

How do you know that hybrid status of a cultivar? Often hybrids will be marked in catalogues. As above, Johnny’s is a great resource; Geoseeds mark hybrids in their catalogue; and if you have a dig through Ball’s culture sheets, you will find it on some of them. Google will be your friend here, as not all Australian seed sites list this information. A general guide: if the seed seller is saving their own seed, the varieties are probably open pollinated. However, be aware that many seed sellers will also on-sell seed that they have bought, so the fact that you bought it from a flower farm doesn’t necessarily mean it is Open Pollinated.

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Johnny's Website is a really good resource for checking the hybrid status of varieties. They list it on the left hand column for each variety they stock. You can see here that Queen Lime zinnias are Open Pollinated and Madame Butterfly Snapdragons are F1 hybrids.

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My Cultivar’s Hybrid Status is Open Pollinated… so I can just leave it out in the open and it will come back true, right?

Well… no, probably not.

Now, the important thing to know here, from a plant breeding and seed saving perspective, is:

1. how the species is pollinated; and

2. whether or not the cultivar that you want to save seeds from needs to be isolated from other cultivars in the species to remain true.

These two things are often interrelated.

Each species will have its own rules in this regard.

For example: sweet peas are very easy to save seed from because they largely self-pollinate before the flower opens. This means there is a very low incidence of cross-pollination with other cultivars, and so different cultivars of sweet pea can be grown together without isolation. Provided you keep the cultivars labelled, you can be pretty confident that the sweet pea seeds that you save will come back true to type. In the vegetable world tomatoes are a good example of this same thing, and are often recommended for beginner seed savers for this reason.

Other flower species might be less likely to self-pollinate, and far more likely to cross-pollinate (that is - use another plant for pollination). To remain true, these cultivars need to be isolated from other cultivars in the species to ensure that the cultivar is only being pollinated by other plants of that same cultivar, and not out-crossing with other cultivars.

For example, zinnias have the potential to self-pollinate, but very easily cross-pollinate. What this means is that if you grow two different zinnia cultivars near each other, the seed that you save will be unpredictable. In the same seed head you will likely have some self-pollinated see that will come back true to the parent, but also cross-pollinated seed that will be unpredictable. The cross pollinated seed may share traits with the seed donor plant, or the pollen donor plant, or some other genetic throwback from the combination. You won’t know until you grow it.

Crossing different cultivars is one of the ways we produce and develop new cultivars. However, the offspring of a cross is a first generation hybrid of two different cultivars, and it takes several generations of growing those same genetics to stabilise a new variety that will produce, consistently, the same flower.

When we breed and trial new genetics we don’t know how those genetics will express themselves but often recessive traits come out. In Zinnias, for example, single petals and bright colours predominate, meaning that you don’t necessarily know that crossing two pastel varieties (eg. Floret Precious Metals and Floret Golden Hour) will result in offspring that is also pastel because you don’t know what genetics for each variety are playing in the background. That seed should be grown out, undesirable traits rogued out (remove plants that don’t look how you want them to), and good plants with the same genetics crossed with each other so that the subsequent generation is more likely to carry those traits that you want.

This is why it takes 5+ years (and potentially 10+ generations in those five years) to create a new variety that can be sold as an Open Pollinated variety.

I have been working on my own zinnia mix for 3 seasons now and, while it is slowly becoming more blush, that pink just will not quit popping up in the middle of it.

As the Floret Originals are Open Pollinated varieties, if you save seed they will more or less come back true.³

However, to be clear and remove all doubt, Open Pollinated does not mean that those varieties don’t need to be isolated from other cultivars.

This means that, if you want to guarantee that your new Floret Originals remain the same and distinct varieties that you can plant again next year, or swap for other goodies, they need to be isolated from your other zinnia varieties.

Isolation can happen via growing in an insect excluding structure (including ‘flysolation’ cages), by putting organza bags over individual bloom heads,⁴ or by distance. The distance required will vary between species, but typically think hundreds of metres to kilometers between cultivars - not just a few beds over.

An Aside

To further complicate things, some plant families can readily cross outside of their species. For example: pumpkins and zucchinis. I only raise this because you might be planning to put an isolation cage over two different types of flower (eg. zinnias and celosia) for more efficient isolations and pollinator releases, so it can be worth a quick check to make sure the two won’t cross with each other and undermine your good work (zinnias and celosia are fine).

On the other end of the spectrum there are some plants that don’t have natural pollinators in our environment, so must be hand pollinated if you wish to collect seed. Bearded Iris, for example, need a large pollinator like the Bumble Bee. As we do not have Bumble Bees here in Aus, we must hand pollinate our Bearded Iris if we wish to hybridise new cultivars - though very occasionally pollination may happen without human intervention.

Open Pollinated as Pollination Method

Now that we know the difference between an open pollinated cultivar and an F1 hybrid cultivar, you’ll have a better understanding of why it is complicated that people are offering ‘open pollinated’ seeds for sale, when those seeds have not been isolated.

In effect, when these seeds are being listed for sale or trade, what the seed-saver is saying is that their seeds have been grown in non-isolated, non-controlled conditions. That is, they are saying there is no guarantee that the seeds they are offering will be the same cultivar as the parent, and there is a high likelihood that cross-pollination has occurred.

Open Pollinated is being used to describe the method of pollination or the field management of the parent plants, rather than referring to the hybrid status of those seeds.

Here’s the thing. The way that Open Pollinated is being used by those people makes sense on the face of what those two words mean together - it’s even one of, though not the primary, accepted definitions.

Open Pollinated feels like it should mean that the pollination was uncontrolled, and in a round about way it kinda does.

Self-pollinated plants do the job themselves. Open Pollinated plants, by one definition, are pollinated by outside sources - wind, pollinators, people.

It is the dual meaning that raises problems, and that the first thing that comes up when the definition is googled is "Open pollinated" generally refers to seeds that will "breed true" that causes problems.

So What’s the Problem

The first problem arises because of a lack of understanding of ‘open pollinated’ as a signifier of hybrid status, and what that entails for the cultivar. An uninformed grower who is new to saving seeds might erroneously think that this means that variety can be grown in the open and still have the offspring come back true. As above, this might even still be the case if they try to google what the heck Open Pollinated means without digging deeper.

This misunderstanding is compounded by the use of ‘open pollinated’ as a pollination method.

However, the bigger problem arises when seed is offered for sale or swap.

Specifically, the problem is that there often isn’t sufficient clarity between whether the seeds being offered are from a known parent cultivar that has potentially crossed with a different cultivar, meaning the resultant seed that is being sold has unknown traits, or whether the seeds being offered are actually the cultivar that is being promised (an open pollinated - not hybrid - cultivar).

Pfew. Confusing, right?

Basically, the problem is that “Open Pollinated Floret Unicorn seeds” can have two very different - opposite - meanings.

Now, ordinarily this might not be a huge deal. However, Floret Seeds are very popular and there is a lot of FOMO now that they have announced they have no plans for another seed sale for the 2025 growing season.

Although Floret have requested that their seeds not be sold, the cultivars are not patented and so it would be a difficult thing to enforce.

I believe that it is highly likely that these seeds will be sold, and the lack of clarity around how seeds are grown and saved will lead to many disappointed growers in the future.

Even if they are being traded, I believe there should still be an expectation that what you receive is what you expect to receive. Especially as, on the odd occasion, I have seen people offering unopened packets in exchange for saved seeds of the cultivars that they did not purchase in the original sale.

These new crosses have not been tested, and so even if sold as a ‘pastel mix’ without any reference to Floret, there is no way to know if that will be true, or what genetic traits will be apparent.

I believe it is misleading to sell seeds this way without proper disclaimers.

Or maybe I am just salty because the above zinnias were purchased as a ‘buff beauty’ mix from a reputable seed seller, and are decidedly not buff even if they are kind of beautiful in a jaunty way.

What Can We Do About It?

Look, I don’t think we’re going to stop people from using ‘open pollinated’ to describe whatever they like, however they like. It would be nice for the sake of clarity if a term like ‘not-isolated’ or ‘uncontrolled pollination’ were to replace it, but I don’t see it happening. It’s pretty ingrained.

Ultimately, even if that term were to change, it might not overcome the underlying issue: that people may not know that it’s important that their varieties are isolated if they wish to preserve the cultivar.

To be clear: I don’t want to be a killjoy and stop people trading whatever they want. I know that some people are happy for the experiment of growing a new generation of seeds, regardless of the outcome, and so don’t care whether pollination is controlled. However, I know I would be (and have been) disappointed when I thought the seeds I was buying were one colour, and then turned out to be… not that.

The best way I can see to get around it as a buyer is to make sure you ask the question: how were these pollinated, and were they grown in isolated conditions.

As a seller or trader I’d recommend clarity in description, and potentially a disclaimer that the outcome may not be known - especially if you are going to invoke the name of the parent seed. If you haven’t tested the outcome, be clear about that, and don’t promise a result that you have no way of knowing.

If you have bought dahlia seeds, you will likely see something like ‘open pollinated in my field’ in the description - I’ve used it myself when I wanted to signify that I wasn’t doing a hand cross. It is a term I will no longer be using in this way. The difference is that all dahlias are hybrids, with near-impossible to predict genetic expressions in their offspring, and so often a disclaimer will be issued to alert the unwary, new dahlia grower: dahlias grown from seed can be a real lucky-dip - they may look like the parent plant, or entirely different!

And when that disclaimer is missing from a description, often there are one or two people who chime in to make it clear in the comments - this is something I haven’t seen in other flower seed trades.

For their part, Floret have put together a mini-series of videos and documents explaining hybridising and seed saving, so hopefully many people will become aware of the importance of isolation and that ‘open pollinated’ may not be all that it seems.

What do you think? Will you be trading or growing Open Pollinated seeds this season?

Want to learn more about hybridising and seed saving?

The Floret Seed Saving Course

The Zinnia Breeders Handbook by Tiffany Jones of Blomma Flower Farm

Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties by Carol Deppe. When it first caught my interest, I found it hard to get good information about how to save seed that was true to type, so bought this book so I could work out how to reverse engineer the process. A fascinating book.

The Seed Garden by Jared Zystro & Micaela Colley. Again, vegetables, but many of the principles remain the same and, at present, there aren’t many great resources that focus on flowers (that I have found - please share if you have them!)

Amazon links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase Amazon may send me some money to help support this newsletter - it won’t affect the price you pay.

1. Floret have requested that growers do not sell the seeds collected from the originals to protect the investment they have made in developing the seed lines, however collection for personal use and trade is allowed, as is incorporating the floret originals into your own zinnia breeding program to develop new varieties that you can then sell. They did leave an avenue for becoming an authorised seller, so it is possible that there are growers with permission to cultivate and sell the Floret seed lines commercially.

2. Fun fact: underlining used be a way for editors to signal to printers that the text should be italicised. I wish middle school me knew that instead of trying to handwrite italics. Luckily on the computer we can simply italicise with the click of a button.

3. It should be noted that Erin has said these varieties are still a work in progress, so there will still be some off-types in your planting. As above, remove these as you see them, and keep saving seed from your best plants to keep improving your crop.

4. If you use this sort of exclusion you might have to introduce pollinators to your nets (flies, bees, etc), or engage in hand pollinating. One of my fun winter projects has been trying to track down a fly dealer, and/or convince my husband that he needs to become a professional fly wrangler and breeder.