Someone asked about growing them in pots. It can be done. Joe Ghio sells his extra stock and his discarded reselect seedlings to a number of commercial nurseries. They grow and sell them in pots. However, I believe Joe or someone in our iris society said they drench them pretty thoroughly in fungicides. They are the hardest (of all the iris I grow) to transplant successfully. I don't like to think of how many I have killed. If you do manage to get plants, soak them in clean water until the small white roots start to grow. Then carefully plant them as the roots are very fragile. Keep them watered until they take.
If you really want to grow PCN's, try it like Ben Hager (one of the greats of iris hybridizing) did. He lived and grew irises in the central valley of California. His climate was certainly not what PCN's are used to. Cold in the winter and HOT and humid in the summer. Despite that, Ben hybridized PCN's that grew and won awards. The story that I was told was that he started with seed. He selected for plants the grew well in his climate. You can purchase seeds from the PCN Iris Society. They can give you more information.
Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris
www.pacificcoastiris.org/
Growing PCN's from seed is not like TB's. Most everything that grows and blooms is very pretty. And you can get a lot of different colors and patterns. Do your research on the conditions they like and give them a try.
