Iris question?

Do irises sometimes crossbreed on their own with no help from us? I have two irises this year that look as if they may have done so.

For example, I planted this iris

And I planted this iris next to it



This message was edited May 6, 2010 10:11 AM

And now I have found this iris

Also, I planted this iris

And I planted this iris along side it

Now most of that iris bed looks like this

Now since I didn't plant anything looking like the two examples I am showing, my guess is the irises planted side by side must have crossed to give me those two irises. That's just a guess, of course. I know pretty much nothing about growing irises.

I have some strange colors in some that are not close to others.
They say they can't cross or change color. Beats me!

They can definitely cross!! That is how we get the new ones. They don't change colors, though, any more than you or I could change colors, but if an insect carries the pollen from one bloom to another bloom and fertilizes it, the resulting seed will almost always look different than the "parents". Seed usually takes about 3 years to bloom, so if you have planted them that long, you could have your own "bee-cross" plants! I think they look great! My first attempt at purposely crossing 2 plants resulted in a bloom I would have had to call "Asphalt". It was ugly color and ugly form. It went in the compost heap!

You could separate the new rhizomes from the old while they are in bloom so you know which is which, then you will be able to know how they grow, etc., and maybe, someday, you could even have them officially named and registered with the American Iris Society!

Sue

Gee, I never thought about getting them registered. As you can see, none of these have changed colors. They are just different shades of the same colors if that makes any sense.:=)

I think you have seed crosses - And god has blessed you with beautiful ones at that! :o)

Possibly if I just leave them alone I'll get more like these!

If you allow them to grow too close together, tehy can crowd out the 'weaker' ones and you can lose a particular color. The original plant never changes. If you are having different ones bloom than you planted there you have these options.

1. your plant was mislabeled, and really was what it bloomed, instead of what you thought you bought.
2. you have had plants pollinated and form seed that grew, these can look totally different than the parent plants
3. you had other iris mixed in with the original ones you planted and they are just now blooming
and my favorite,,, 4. OH< I wondered what I *did* with that! (same as 'huh, I don't remember buying that one, guess I did!')

I do thin my irises about every 3rd year. There are quite a few of them, so I thin irises every year, just kind of in a three year rotation. I do know that the plants were correctly labeled, because for each the first couple years they bloomed as what they were supposed to be. Then these two oddballs showed up. So far, the only problem I've had with #4 above is - "Oh, yeah! I remember buying that one!" I do like your list for reference and will check it next time I have something "weird" show up.

One thing I have noticed in my garden is that very small pieces of a previously planted iris can pop up with another iris in a year or two, and since it will take a couple years to bloom, by that time you might have forgotten what was there. Sometimes I plant a bunch of tiny whatsits close together, and they might turn up to be different varieties...