Does anyone know

And, maybe everyone knows, and I'm just ignorant.

Can Irises be cross pollinated like daylilies?

I'm almost positive they can be because of what I've seen happen in my own beds, but, I'd like someone with more knowledge than I to tell me!

Melissa

This message was edited Thursday, Aug 7th 12:07 AM

What a concept ... guess I'll find out more next year when I'll have iris and daylilies cohabitating in the same bed. LOL

But seriously, I wouldn't think it's possible.
Different species and all that ...

Cheri'

huh? Mother of blonde moment...

NO SUNDRY!!! Laughing here, I'm sorry I wasn't clearer in my post....

Not cross breeding, cross pollinating.

Irises being cross pollinated with other irises...

I had a couple of irises show up this past year, that I did NOT have before. A pink/lavendar cross and a pink/dark purple cross.

There was only one flower Stalk of each, and they only way they got there was if the Iris fairy came and planted them one night, or they were a result of a mixing of two different ones.

I am just guessing, that they can be cross pollinated like the daylilies, and the seed pods form, drop off and make a new iris?



This message was edited Thursday, Aug 7th 1:46 AM

I found this link http://www.youth-iris.com/pollinating_iris.htm

and this one
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/bg0002.asp

and this one
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/7679/hybridizing.html

and this one
http://www.region18.com/hybridizing.htm

OH MY.... I am going to HAVE FUN "hybridizing" my Irises...

I like making Iris babies better than "hybridizing" LOL



This message was edited Thursday, Aug 7th 1:59 AM

Duh! I'm getting blonder all the time ... This is what happens when I'm up till all hours reading the forums. =/

So you have new crosses? cool! I've seen seed pods on my irises when I had them before, but didn't know what to do with 'em, then.

Cheri'

That's what I thought you meant. Momma says many of her irises "cahnaged" over the years too. Could you send your iris fairy to my garden? I want to see this happen. With my luck, they'll all go yellow or a yucky color of faded purple.... Ha Ha

come to think of it, I have a couple of cement fairies--they don't fly too much...

Making a new iris is a really specialized area, requiring lots of patience and nerves of steel. Most of the ones you would start out with would have been already crossed many times, so any seeds produced would have the possibility of exhibiting any traits of all those from their past. People have devoted their lives to this pursuit!

The nerves part comes in when it's time to kill your babies. In each pod, there will be numerous seeds, and you must grow each of them out to determine what the blooms will be. So you will be growing hundreds of unknowns for several years, and the liklihood of any one being very different or desirable for multiplying and introducing to the public is not great. So what to do with the culls? Well, I never met an iris I didn't like, so destroying them is painful to me. But you must do so if you are to have any room left for new ones. My personal solution is to give them away to someone who loves iris, is a new gardener or needs a quick display for next spring. Even so, you will have an abundance of candidates at any given time.

Oh, my, this is such a lovely kettle of fish. Would that all my "problems" were so pleasantly solved.

I cross pollinate and grow bearded irises from seed all the time. It's not that hard, but it IS different than growing daylilies from seed.

In the first place, the Mommy and Daddy parts of an iris are in different locations than a daylily. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I had a moderate amount of trouble finding the stigmatic lip on an iris at first. You will probably need to find a diagram of how to pollinate iris online somewhere. I'm sure I won't be able to explain it the way it needs to be explained. :-)

Bearded iris seeds seem to take FOREVER to ripen. I'm still waiting on pods that I set in mid-May; whereas daylily seeds only take around eight weeks.

Bearded iris seeds also require a period of freeze/thaw to germinate. I plant my seeds out in beds in October/November and they sprout the following spring. Some people plant them in pots and set them in cold frames. Some put them in the freezer. It doesn't matter how you do it, but beardeds do NEED that freeze/thaw time to germinate. Also, some of the seeds will take two years to germinate.

If you cross pretty to pretty in daylilies, you are very likely to get something pretty, or at least something decent to work with. With irises, you never know WHAT you are going to get! The genes seem to "line up" different in iris, if that makes any sense. Even bee pods can yield some pretty fabulous plants. And Aimee is right when she says you must cull them, but some (most!) of my seedling irises are so ugly, that that's not a problem for me.

Most iris seedlings will bloom in a year, but some will take two or more. This is no different than daylily seedlings though.

Just FYI:I do BEARDED iris exclusively-- standard dwarf bearded iris mostly-- I can't tell you the procedure for other types of iris.

This is a picture of a standard dwarf bearded iris that I am going to register and release next year. It is a cross of two blues (Chubby Cheeks x Bedford Lilac), so you can see that hybridizing iris is a crap shoot. But it's just as fun as hybridizing daylilies!

IndaShade, that's a might pretty baby you got there. I agree, the majority of my crosses are unremarkable, to put it mildly. And a lot of it seems to depend upon my mood, so I stall a bit before I condemn one. Once I discarded a tan one, it was in a year when I was fixated on pink and black, with some allowance for champagne and deep burgundy. Now I think back and realize I might have liked that tan one in a different mood.

If anyone is interested in trying iris from, I will probably have some bearded iris seed available in September.

All I ask is for in return is postage, and that if you get any good flowers from the seed I send you, that you share pictures. :-)

IndaShade, I would love to try some of your seeds. lmk where to send the postage and when. Nancy

Indashade, Your Spring Peeper is sure a keeper. I used to hybridize iris, never introduced any tho. I did hybridize and introduce 7 or 8 daylilies in the 1980s. Have more growing now but nothing extraordinary. Good luck with yours Donna

I must say Spring Peeper is stunning . I myself adore these smaller iris. Would add this gem to my garden in a heartbeat! Congrat's Spring Peeper is definately a Keeper.

Cathy

IndaShade, Your Spring Peeper is beautiful,I would love to have some in my new iris bed,why stop digging now,right?lol
Congrats Inda, Shirley

Unfortunately, I have to hold SPRING PEEPER for a year or two to increase before I can offer it. Standard Dwarf Bearded iris usually spread like weeds though.

IndaShade -- Your little Spring Peeper is adorable and I hope you offer her for sale to your fellow DGers first! We would love to spread the word of how sweet she is! I will definately take some of your seeds if you have enough. Shall I send you an email with my address?

LimeyLisa Kay