Reviving Lucy's thread makes me wonder where she's been hiding lately?

Hope everything is OK!

Me too, I don't think she posted anything in about a week.

Yes this is a valuable thread - and glad it's been revived.
Saying hi to Lucy.

Arlyn mentioned on another thread that she was having computer issues.

Tom. Glad she is ok.

I certainly was having computer issues. it died completely. I really don't like my new one & I had e-mail issues since then since Verizon stopped & had to switch to aol & them kept losing my password.

but onword to hybridizing: 14 seeds from a MTB cross which are drying at the moment.

Computers!

I thought I would only get 3 pods this year, but several of the Tempo Two irises which bloomed out of season have pods on them!
I hope there will be enough time for them to mature before it gets too cold.

irisarian said:yes to question 2, unless you know the particular species clone. Some species have registered names. I have a species (of John's which has a number) so it was I. aphylla 87J X a bearded seedling. Any old species seed out of the wild would just say I. aphylla.

Lucy ~ Does this mean that you currently have I. aphylla??? I would LOVE to have that. Do you know where I can obtain it?

we have 2 different clones of I. aphylla. We can probably send some to you next summer. Or ask, see if Superstition Gardens has some in their historic listing. It is a species after all, Most places are selling new clones, not species, but some are around.

I finally decided last night which seeds to start (not all of my iris crosses), and today I divided up some of the seeds from each cross (all 7 seeds from the lowest yielding cross) into little condiment cups with lids. I'll start the stratification later today.

I am using the same sort of labeling scheme as I do with my daylily seedlings. There will be a letter (maybe 2) which is the first letter(s) of the pod parent's name, then 1-2 digits to indicate the particular cross, 2 more digits for the year the seed was harvested, then however many digits to number the seedlings in the cross. (Since I do notes and take images, I want to keep everything straight so all seedlings are now numbered up front, at least with respect to where they are in the row or the window box or whatever. Medium to long term individual labels are only made when and if I keep seedlings for another look.)

So... A1-17-## will be my seedlings from a cross of 'Autumn Thunder' by an old seedling of mine. (It is the only "A" cross this year.)

P1-17-## will be my seedlings from 'Peggy Sue' x 'Ida Red', and P3-17-## will be my seedlings from 'Peggy Sue' x a sibling to 'Love Continues'. (Yes, I also have seeds from a P2-17 cross, but I am probably not going to start those seeds (at least at this time).... I've only got so much room, time, and energy, and I've got daylily seeds to grow too.)

Exciting stuff! Can't wait to start mine, especially since I hope to have enough room to sow all my iris (and other ) seeds in the near future!

Marilyn ~ How exciting! Then the long wait...

evelyninthegarden said:Marilyn ~ How exciting! Then the long wait...

Meh.... I'm used to it. In most cases, I have to wait 2 years to get daylily seedlings to bloom. (If you have a favorable climate and really push it, you can get half of your seedlings to bloom in 1 year. I don't push it, because I don't multi-task well and at the time I should be starting daylily seeds, my head is in the mountains and getting ready to go hiking... and afterwards, I need recovery time, and now there is perpetually Thanksgiving and or Christmas travel, and I don't want to risk infant seedlings while being gone several days.)

For me, the real issue is not the wait... it's finding sunny space. (Well, also keeping the seedling area(s) looking good. DH complained this year about my 3 raised daylily seedling beds, even though I work hard to keep them looking good. I think he just doesn't like looking at the cedar boards, but I don't know what I can do about THAT... I don't really want to be constructing permanent stone structures there, particularly with the underlying redwood tree roots. (As it is, we are going to have to deconstruct the 3 beds and try another approach, one that will keep the redwood roots from invading. I need the flexibility to try Plan "C" if the upcoming Plan "B" doesn't work out.))

When planning your crosses, can you cross an intermediate with a tall bearded?

Are there any groups that won't interbreed?

Someone else might be better to chime in on this, but I have seen a few crosses like that, from time to time. In my short course of studies, I have learned that some irises are more fertile than others.

As far as what doesn't cross would be beardless irises with bearded.

Some arils will cross, with bearded, each having varying degrees of fertility. I am going to try to cross some arilbreds with bearded. I don't even know if they will take. Some seeds take up to 10 years to germinate! I don't know if I will live that long.

I have produced seeds by crossing an intermediate bearded iris with a tall bearded iris which haven't reached flowering size yet. I yielded 15 seeds, 9 germinated and one of those nine died.

In the 2015/16 Tempo Two catalog it says:
"Median bearded iris - or intermediates derive mostly from crossing Tall Bearded Iris (TBs) with Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris (SDBs). Because of the unusual chromosome numbers that result from these crosses, most varieties are sterile. However, as the bearded iris gene pool becomes more complicated with more generations of seedlings, some modern Intermediates are somewhat fertile. Often seedlings resulting from crossing these fertile varieties have many of their size proportions out of classification: either huge flowers on short stems or very small flowers on tall stems...."

Thanks Evelyn and Robin!

Robin ~ How interesting! Will you let us know when the babies grow up if any of them are good, or not so good? And will you take pictures as well when the time comes?

I will definitely take photos to share with everyone when they bloom.

Robin ~ It seems a long ways away..I wonder what will happen. I bet if you get good color, but a small flower, it could be crossed again to bring back the bigger flower...or not....who knows until it is tried.