Source: Tuoi Tre via Ag Biotech Vietnam

Tran Pham Anh Tuan, 32, a farmer in An Binh, Lam Dong Province, has revealed the fruits of his labours, cross breeding 20 new varieties of gerbera flowers.

Tuan said that he began his foray into cross breeds a decade ago, but has only obtained real success in the last three years.

He created at least 3,000 varieties of gerbera from crossing gerbera varieties from Da Lat with species imported from the Netherlands, Taiwan and Japan. The new flowering plants were then further cross-pollinated, producing seeds – unlike their sterile domestic peers - thanks to a pollination process that Tuan learned from studying the spread of pollen by insects.

Tuan sowed the seeds and grew them in his garden. He then gathered genetic material from the new varieties for preservation. The process led to variances each time it was replicated, growing 20 different varieties of gerbera.

(Source: Tuoi Tre 28th June 2006)