Iris - From seed

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I have been trying to cross pollenate some of my Irises this last fortnight, but the constant showers and down pours are thwarting me. Either the pollen is not ready or too wet or the mother flower has been battered by the wind. I am now at the disappointing stage of collecting up the labels from shrivelled seed pods where fertilization has not been successful, for one reason or another. Although today the flowers look a soggy mess, there are one or two promising pods developing.

Here are some photos of Iris germanica from seed from one of my own plants, collected about 5 years ago. The mother parent was a red pictured below. (Sultans palace)

Siris Seedling One turned out to be more ginger coloured than its parent. After waiting patiently for so long when the buds finally appeared I could not wait another few days and impatiently peeled off the papery protective spathe to see what treasure lay within, marking the beauty of one of the falls on the right hand side.

Siris Seedling 2 is pictured below. Has a pearly glow to the standards.

A 2nd generation Beardless Californian Iris from the RHS Seed Distribution scheme.

The leaves belong to a dwarf variegated Bamboo ( non-invasive). Mine is no more than 30 cm tall and is over 10 years old.

• 24 May, 2014
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