What would it take

Don't worry about the pollen. Terry Aitken claims that he first tried to put in on the beards. Make sure the the lip is sticky.

Ok after looking at the last link I think that I know what to do now. I did not know where the stigmatic lip was. The pics helped a lot!
When is the best time to pollenate? With daylilies it's better to do in the morning. Can you use pollen that is more than one day old on the bloom?

I have done it in the morning before going to work, when I get home after being at work. As you can see work interfers greatly with hybridizing.

Anywhy I have gotten pods on both but the morining ones seem to do better. the best results (if I get no rain, is between 7-10AM and 4-7 PM depending on when the flower opened.

:)
A

When working with different classes which bloom at different times, I store pollen in envelopes in the fridge, name written, of course. The enveopes are in old instant coffee jars with a drying agent. I use flower dri, cut you can use corn starch. Sometimes the pollen dries too much, but very often it is good. Even in the same class some plants bloom before others. I have taken to keeping a list of cultivars with pollen. I wish I had thought of it earlier.

It would take:

Being free of MS ( Multiple Sclerosis ) for the rest of my life.........
and if I were,
then having more land and money.

Marilyn

Hybridized before: Yes, tried it in 2008, the seeds are in a pot, waiting for warmer weather.

Thinking of hybridizing:
Yes, This year 2009

Personally, I would like to stop. Last year I found myself in the garden before work, rushing home on my limited lunch hour, and afterwork. There I was with the tweezers(I prefer scissor grip), my hybridizing kit which consists of marker and tags and stapler and pen and paper to document date and parent cultivars. Then there were a number of successes and I babysat the pods as best I could until they were ready to harvest. I learned about how Blyth does this too and that was interesting. It was mostly his that I crossed. Some pods broke off early and I had to research how to handle that.Then I harvested many seeds and dried them and planted them in a long planter. I am just waiting until maybe they sprout this year or next. There were sooo many that I could cross and not enough time!!! This stuff just gets sooo intense. Anyway, I have some old crosses from different parents that might put on bloom this year and I am excited about that even though I probably wouldn't cross those same parents now. It is the wonder of it, I guess.

Irisawe

do any of you that hybridize, like me, a beginner, find that you are really clumsy of hand when it comes to this delicate process? I'm redesigning my whole garden. Have realized it is not conducively planned for me to kneel in front of every plant! because of clay soil and moderate at best light, most bloom lower to the ground here, so bending down that low, with no room to kneel, I've toppled over in the softer dirt sometimes!

& don't worry if they are ugly & quit as a result. Just add to the compost pile & go on to the next project. You can also look at the problems with your plant, & see how to correct it. I have found that in making a cross a poor grower should be cross ONTO the better grower. So if I can I do so. another problem to solve is having 2 good plants & neither has pollen. You can always go sidewise--using siblings & see which works the best.

Harvesting seeds can be interesting. I was watching a BB cross which had 3 pods, forgetting one that had a single pod. 'Oops' I said & rushed out to the other plant. The pod had started to split turned upside sown, so seeds were falling out. I pulled some weeds to get at seeds on the ground & the ground errupted with ants who grabbed the seeds & ran away so that I was left with a single seed which had rolled to the side. That one has been put in a pot, so I don't know if it will germinate. I will repeat the cross with a promise to be more careful. Both parents are seedlings which are lined out so I'm sure that I will get more bloom.

I sit on my kneeler if possible especially when writing tags--it helps to write the tags first. Doing SDBs I have been known to lie flat on my stomach & yes, have been known to take a few tumbles.

I, too, use a kneeler, stool and have made a few tumbles. A little shake-up is good for the soul if you don't break anything.

uh huh - I always break something, usually it's the stalk of something I most wanted to cross. ARGH.

that's what I'm doing now, making room to kneel in my gardens. Originally I planted them with not even enough room to get inbetween and weed.

that little kneeler I've got is a godsend for writing.

I sure am glad to know that I'm not the only one who has fallen, toppled over, slipped and so forth in my iris beds.
I now have a total left knee replacement from tearing my knee up so bad. Therefore there is no getting down on my hands and knees any more in the garden. I either use my little garden chair on wheels, a small step stool, or have to just stoop all the way over while standing. The later is not good if you have stomach reflux as I do. LOL

Anyway these have been some very interesting post to read and I've enjoyed them greatly. Now I'm off to read the above article someone suggested for me.

Happy Gardening, Marian

Oh my goodness I just finished my quick course in hybridizing and I'm going to start tomorrow. I certainly am glad I saw all the pictures explaining EXACTY what everything was on the Irises and where to put the pollen. I have a couple that opened their first blooms today and tomorrow they should have some more open. I can see where I'm going to be spending much of my time in the near future. Wish me luck! I think I'm hooked and I feel as though this is something even I can do. LOL

Best Regards,
Marian

Have fun tomorrow, Marian, I know you will:)

Hybridized before:
Yes meaning I tried last year made seeds and have yet to see them sprout up. The snow is starting to melt enougfh to see a few irises now but it still gets 29 degrees at night outside and mostly in the thirties during the day.

Would hybidize if

Had Space 1
more Knowledge 3 a grooming class for the shows was held by Maine Iris Society, before I learned how to hybridize, most of the irises had bloomed early, a little too early for the show. I have never had my irises in a show yet. Learned a little bit about hybridizing at the iris grooming class and went home that day and crossed a few irises, SDB to SDB, Cat's Eye x not Eyebright, Snow Tree x Yearling, Tinkerbell x Baby Blessed. Arilbred to Arilbred, Tall Bearded x Tall Bearded, Gold Of Orphir x Prince Thou Art, Bearded to Tall Bearded, SDLG Loomis V20 x Bertha Gersdorff. They were the only ones blooming at time of grooming class. Planted Oct. 2008 in pots and labeled in well drained spot but not knowing if they will germinate this year.

Julianna Fogg

This message was edited Mar 24, 2009 1:31 AM

Julianna

Just a note make sure you do notthrow out the pots after a year. Those that do not germinate set in partial shade and put them back in the open oct/nov but I am sure you will get seedlings. :) Good Luck
A

Thank You! So it might take two years to germinate then. Grin.
Julianna