This year some of my seedlings from crosses I made in 2015 bloomed for the first time. I am a novice hybridizer and these are the first crosses I made after my initial trial run a couple years earlier where I just crossed the last 2 hybrids that bloomed. There is nothing special among them. I am just sharing some photos for anyone who is interested in seeing some examples of what blooms are created from various parents.

The first cross I made was Ibiza x Silver Streak.
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I wanted to create a pink broken pattern iris. Since then I have acquired a pink broken pattern iris and I have learned that the broken pattern and plicata traits are recessive and that my chances of getting them is low unless both parent irises have this trait. The pod parent of Ibiza has some plicatas in its ancestry but is not a plicata. I have 15 seedlings from this cross that have bloomed and a bud on another one.

I must apologise for the snail damage on my blooms. I didn't want to introduce any chemicals to the blooms and I didn't want to use pellets because I have a cat.

Most of my seedlings are bitones.
Ibiza 2 has one white streak on one bloom only
Ibiza 3 has flowers of varying colours on one stem. This is what these blooms looked like the first day they opened. I have been expecting the darker one to fade but 3 days on it still looks the same
Ibiza 6
Ibiza 8 This is the reddest seedling
Ibiza 10 bloomed last year
Ibiza 11
Ibiza 12
Ibiza 14 One bloom only low in the foliage
Ibiza 15
Ibiza 19 with Ibiza 12. One bloom on Ibiza 19 went flat
Ibiza 22
Ibiza 28
Ibiza 32

I was excited to see a couple of plicatas in the mix, but no broken patterns.
Ibiza 4 The falls have a hint of beige
Ibiza 18

Out of these 15 Ibiza seedlings 13 are bitones, 2 are plicatas and 3 are space ages.

These are a couple of group photos. The dark purple bloom is from a different cross.


I am keeping an eye on Ibiza 3 and its varying colour blooms. It has 3 stalks and more buds to open. Does anyone else find this weird?

Thanks for sharing all those photos, Robin. It is interesting to see the variation amongst the seedlings.

#3 puzzles me. You might have to wait for next year to see if it repeats its variable colour palette.

I quite like #8 and #14.

I'm not a huge fan of plicatas, but I think #4 has potential too.

good job of documenting your journey, robin. i liked 22 and 28. i thought 28 was intriguing with it's dark flounces.

Not only variable colors but different shaped blooms. I love that darkest one of that group.
I agree that 28 is nice with those large flounces.

Robin ~ You have a nice assortment of seedlings there. It proves that you never know what will happen with the "offspring".

I especially like #28

Ibiza 28

and the dark form on #3

Ibiza 3

I'm with Ev on this #3 and #28 look promising.

Thankyou for your feedback everyone .
I am not a fan of maroon bitones and I think any bitone needs to be special to stand out from the crowd. I wasn't excited about any of these seedlings. I was hoping to create some broken colour irises, not bitones. My favourite was number 19. It was a lovely reddish pink. I will keep number 19 and 4 and maybe 28 for another year. I am planning to discard the other half of the seedlings from this cross that didn't bloom this year. I need the space.

In regard to the different colour blooms on number 3, the second bloom from the same socket as very dark brown bloom is lighter and looks close enough to the other blooms to look like the same flower. The stem is broken now (I may have bumped it when taking photos).


On another stem, there are 2 buds that are different colours. It will be interesting to see if these blooms look similar when they open

Have you ever wondered what happens if you cross a tall bearded iris with an intermediate? Back in 2015 I crossed Devil May Care with Silver Streak hoping to create a purple broken pattern iris.
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Similarly to my previous cross, my chances of getting a broken pattern are low because Devil May Care is not a plicata but it has a great grandparent which is. I have 7 seedlings from this cross and only 2 of them bloomed this year. One was trouble free, the other was nothing but trouble.

Devil May Care 4 was doing well until the top part of the bloom stalk broke off. I put it in a jar of water but it died of rot and I didn't see it bloom. About a week later I noticed there was another bud still on the plant in the ground. This bud produced a chimera with 3 falls and one standard. The bloom is about the same size as Neon Blue, another intermediate bearded iris.


Nearly 2 weeks later another bloom emerged. This one had 4 falls. I didn't spray anything to stop the bugs because I have heard that chemicals can affect the blooms and this seedling had enough problems already.


About 10 days after that I finally got a bloom with 3 standards and 3 falls but the bugs go to it before the bud opened.


I am hoping it will bloom normally next year without any chimeras. I don't know if these problems are a consequence of crossing a tall iris with an intermediate.
Would you call this iris a broken pattern? There are streaks sometimes.

Devil May Care 5 was the trouble free seedling. I think this bloom is the size of an intermediate too. It has rather long falls like its pod parent.

Interesting results, Robin. I don't know if DMC#4's problems are a result of the cross or not, but I do know that there can be issues with older IB's fertility and compatibility.

very interesting results, robin. that's a long horn and flounce on 'dmc5', i like that it's tri-colored.

Robin, your dmc seedlings are BEAUTIFUL. That deep purple and the very interesting beards Ibiza3 also caught my eye. Reminds me of caramel and also honey.

Robin if you're thinking of naming them, here's some ideas I came up with.

4 names for Ibiza3 could be:
1. 'Reminds me of Caramel'
2. 'Caramel Apple'
3. 'Bit o Honey'
4. 'Honey Bear Bo Bo'

Names for your dmc seedlings could be:
1. 'Squiddy Ink'
2. 'Insect Attraction'
3. 'Beetle Juice'

I could never name an iris "Insect Attraction". I would hope the iris has other qualities that come to mind.
I like the name "Reminds me of caramel" but I won't be keeping Ibiza 3.

Totally_Amazing said: I like the name "Reminds me of caramel" but I won't be keeping Ibiza 3.

What????

Robin, I suspect many folks would like that dark one of Ibiza 3, but it was weird how the other blooms were so different.
I love the deep purple color of DMC5!

Evelyn and Laurie - I only had one dark bloom on Ibiza 3, so I suspect it was the anomaly. The rest of the blooms look like this

except for this chimera

I am impressed with your efforts. I think they are lovely. All! The reds I love and think they look good with yellows. I have never tried crosses. I have left seed pods in hopes that I would be able to plant just for fun. However, the seeds never matured. This on my historics as well as hybrids. I do not have any ideas on that. Guess I will have to research that. You are an inspiration to me

for your kind words Kats12.

There are several different methods people use to encourage seed germination. I just plant my seeds in potting mix and give them a light spray of water each day. I plant them so they are just covered with a thin layer of potting mix. I don't collect the seeds until the seed pod goes brown and cracks open. When I see a seed pod developing, I put an organza jewelry bag over the seed pod to stop the seeds falling on the ground so I can find them. Once I collect the seeds, I let them dry for 2 days before planting. It doesn't snow in Melbourne or reach freezing temperatures. Maybe you would need to bring the seeds inside over winter. I have my fingers crossed that you succeed next time

I love seeing these crosses. A good way to try and get the desired effect would be to breed back one to a broken pattern parent. Just a suggestion to bring out more of the recessive traits you are trying to get.
Can't wait to see more!

for the suggestion Amy . I was thinking that too.

The last cross I made in 2015 was between Silver Streak and Dark Passion. This time I used Silver Streak as the pod parent
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Nine seedlings bloomed this year.
Dark Passion 1 has thin stems
Dark Passion 2
Dark Passion 3 The top buds bloomed sideways and close together
Dark Passion 5
Dark Passion 7 bloomed low in the foliage
Dark Passion 18
Dark Passion 19 The underside of the falls is mostly white.
Dark Passion 20
Dark Passion 25

(left to right) Dark Passion 20, 2, 1 (in sun and shade)