Our local chapter of the North American Lily Society, the Potomac Lily Society, had a special guest speaker last weekend: Dr. Robert Griesbach senior (as a matter of fact, Dr. Robert Griesbach junior was there with his son Robert Griesbach. As someone in the group jokingly asked, would the real Robert Griesbach please stand up!). This was a wonderful event, not long enough by far. Dr. Griesbach spoke about his hybridizing efforts over the years with several genera: Gladiolus, Hemerocallis and Lilium. For those of us with an interest in plant breeding, it was a rare chance to hear and question someone with more practical experience than most of us back-yard hybridizers could ever hope to acquire. Here's the relevance to this list: awhile back I repeated the belief handed on to me that triploid pollen was useless. At this point, Jim Shields kindly intervened and in several private posts straightened me out on several points. Thanks, Jim! Among the points that Jim made in those private posts was that he was sure pollen of the triploid Hemerocallis clone Europa had successfully been used to get viable seed. I still had my doubts (we lily people almost always have our doubts when daylilies are involved). Because of Dr. Griesbach's experience with both lilies and daylilies, I was keen to hear his opinion of triploid pollen. His verdict: it has been known to work, although rarely, with lilies, too. Apparently it's "simply" a matter of probability: there are so many potential combinations which can occur during meiosis in triploids that the chances of getting gametes which will work with the gametes derived from diploids are very small. You know the expression "money is the root of all evil"? If, as I did, you used this expression as a child and were told that the correct form is "love of money is the root of all evil" then maybe you'll appreciate what follows. I was about to say that "knowledge is the fountain of youth". But it's really "a love of knowledge is the fountain of youth." Today I feel like a spring chicken! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpoer.net Montgomery County, Maryland, zone 7, where it's time for this spring chicken to get out and scratch around in the garden.