Now that the two months of spring bloom are nearly over, and I've tried cross-pollinating a couple of my irises, how soon would I expect to see seed pods form after the bloom has dried? I'm beginning to think my cross pollinating didn't take.

There should be a swelling below the bloom by now, I would think. But give it a little more time, perhaps?

I didn't get the best results this year. Only 7 seedpods out of 40 crosses.
The upside is that several of these are highly anticipated!

Shortly after the flower is spent and starting to dry up some, you should be able to feel the swelling seed pod just below where the bloom is attached to it. I have some that started to develop, and then aborted the process shortly after. After a couple months there should be a large pod already. If not it didn't work.
I would never cross this many blooms on one stem, but Chardonnay And Ice set 4 bee pods on one stem. It could very well be that they are empty though, as many bee pods are. Funny thing is I have tried often to set a pod on it, and failed. I haven't tried in a long time. Maybe next year I will.

I am never sure if a pod is developing until about 11 days after pollination.


After 11 days


After 16 days

Great example, Robin!

So far this year, I only have one pod from my own crosses (didn't make a lot this year) and one bee pod. I wait 2 weeks from pollination to see if a pod forms before I remove the stalk.

I don't remove any stalks I have pollinated until the spathe is so thin it is obvious a pod isn't forming.

Out of 27 crosses (me and the bees), only 3 pods produced seeds and one of those appears to have immature mis-shaped seeds. I cross whatever though. I don't check on its breeding record -Could be why I have a low success. All my bee pods had empty seed pods. I never realized this is common, before reading this thread

Most of my crosses must have rained out. I only got 3 pods and one bee pod out of around 20 attempts. Last year, I had about 50% success with my crosses without checking the fertility of the irises I used. I reckon if they are infertile, I'll notice sooner or later.

I spent a lot of time clipping off bloomstalks with bee pods forming. I always miss a few and get a few seedlings blooming near an established clump each year. It seems like the ones the bees make are really hardy and if I did not dig them out when I first spot them they would manage to take over the space of the desired iris. I look for little new irises that are not connected to the clump when I am weeding too. I can just pull them out with the weeds. I have some areas set aside for seedlings and no room for any more. If one or two bloom and they are really lovely.... then they are keepers.

Lili: 50% sounds great! I would. be elated if I had that success.

Bonnie: It sounds then like I should not rule out the bee pods. I will continue to check them.

I think some pods that form are not bee pods but just wishful thinking from the plant. Well, you know what I mean. The plant is ready to be pollinated and to set a seed pod but not getting pollinated does not always stop the rest of the natural process from occurring.

Bonnie, many years ago we had horse and a dog do that.

hahaha. @iciris.
:lol: we had a silky terrier that thought she was pregnant after her heat. she had a little 4" stuffed toy armadillo that she would carry around, and nurse. she even had real milk in her teets. after a few days we would take her armadillo away, she'd whine and mope around for a few days, then she would get back to her normal self. she was our brood bitch so we didn't want to spay her, but we also didn't want to breed her every year.

after that last round of false pregnancies, we had her spayed.....so she wouldn't be so sad every six months. we also stopped showing our dogs. but, we had fun winning red and blue ribbons with our dogs.

Yep, the dog and horse had also made milk too.

Elsa, 3 pods out of 27 is heartbreaking :sad:.

Yes, but there might be something wonderful in one of those 3 !!!

If I got 50% of my crosses to take, I'd be in deep trouble! I hardly know where to go with the ones I get. The peony I got from Polly has a nice pod of seeds, so I asked a friend who crosses peonies what I had to do the germinate the seeds. So now I have that information, and one bunch of seeds developing that I want to try to grow. We'll see how that works.

Good luck with the peony seeds Tom .

I am starting to look at hybridizing other plants too. I looked around my garden and asked myself "What are my favourite plants?". I love irises, agapanthus, kniphofia (red hot pokers) and anigozanthos (kangaroo paw). There are some nice blends of colours in kangaroo paws and kniphofias, so they are my next hybridizing project. I read that Kangaroo Paws can flower from seeds after 1 year.... perfect! Now I just have to figure out the plant anatomy.

Good luck with the not-iris projects, Tom and Robin!

Hello, I am new at this and have never bred any iris, but I am considering it. I am not sure if I should get started with this if it takes several years, since I am 75. I am in pretty good health so I may give it a try.

How long does it take from developing a seed to bloom? Two or three years? Years go by quickly for me, so that part is no problem. What do you do after the pods form? Do you leave them on the stalk, or cut them off? Once you discover if you have seeds do you immediately refrigerate them until spring?

I hope that this is alright to ask questions here. If not, please steer me in the right direction.

Of course this will only happen after the desired iris are in bloom. I have heard some that refrigerate pollen if the ones that you want to cross don't bloom at the same time.

Evelyn