results are not concrete usually one in one thousand depends on the cross most will be similar with slight differences once got 40something seed from signa gerninated 29 from that three keepers. one thing for sure you will be the first person ever to see them and the anticipation when a bud forms is sublime

What are flatties?

I have to admit that I'm not very good with knowing about irises. I started cross-pollinating amaryllis and after having luck with growing the seeds, I of course decided to have fun cross-pollinating iris as well. Last year I cross-pollinated some iris and winter-sowed a batch of seeds back in October. To my dismay (or surprise?), the seedlings started coming up this month so I had to move them to the greenhouse a few times when it started getting too cold but the weather warms right back up!

I am curious to know why it's better to cross-pollinate single breeder lines instead of just 'wide' crosses? My iris came from my mother's and I don't have any specific names. I always referred to them with their colors such as "purple" or "black". After asking her, she has no idea either since she's had them for years and years.

Flatties are Iris which have all "Falls" (the petals which hang down) and no standards (the petals which curve up).

Line breeding is a continuous process of sorting or selecting for desirable recessive traits. When lines get stale, limited out crosses to other lines are made to refresh the gene pool, bringing back good and bad recessives which had been bred out. I say Limited because the less the lines are related, the more random the results will be.

So if you cross Iris which are the result of someones decades of sorting it is more likely that you will get good results. On the other hand it is less likely that you will get something new and different.

If you are happy with the Flower Form of the iris you crossed, then I think you will be happy with most of your seedlings as well. Naming Unknown Iris is a fools errand as over 10,000 cultivars have been introduced.

Iris seedlings are quite hardy and can survive outside in Zone 8.

This is really fascinating!

Heh! I'm not surprised to hear that finding the name of an iris would be nearly impossible to do. I have a feeling I could say it's one thing but someone will point out that it's under some other name... or two.

For me, this is just fun and curiosity with experimenting. The only thing that really concerns me is that I won't be able to stop myself until I've run out of room to plant seeds.

Actually I think there are more like 40-50,000 introduced iris :-) That being said, I would disagree that trying to identify unknown iris is a fool's errand. In many cases it may be impossible (e.g. there are an awful lot of purple bitones out there). However, many unknown iris are common historic iris varieties, or have unique enough traits to identify. Checking pictures at online resources such as the AIS wiki or HIPS is a good first step - if you think you have a match, to get a definitive answer grow a known plant of that variety next to your unknown and see if they're identical come bloom time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Historic Iris Preservation Society

Jean I think it depends on how much you value your time.

If you are starting with an unknown, with no 'short list' of purchased varieties, which has been grown by someone for many years etc. It may as well be some un-named seedling. If the flower is distinctive - then yes it can be identified on sight. But most of the noid Iris I see posted are generic blue or purple 'flags' that have been passed around.

Rather than waste hours of ones time, why not invest a few dollars in named iris - if it is important to you. Older named iris can be had for less that $5 a pop.

Chad

Jean is the Secretary of the Historical Iris Society, I would tend to heed her advice/comments. If you want to try dabbing some pollen, do it! It's interesting and who knows what you'll end up with.

More pertinent perhaps is my job as cultivar preservation chair of HIPS - I firmly believe that many of the thousands of iris varieties thought to be lost may in fact still exist in someone's garden as an "unknown." Thus, I have a strong interest in identifying unknowns. And yes, not everyone has the time or inclination to try to ID them, but I do want to encourage those who want to that it's not necessarily a hopeless task...

Jean, when you get an unknown which has no providence (history of source etc.) and is not currently in commerce (no live Iris to compare it to) how do you go about determining the ID ? I would think that pictures from long ago are in bad shape and that catalog images are somewhat fanciful to begin with... The older Check lists - pre 60's don't have very informative descriptions either...

In other words - if someone here wants to ID an older unknown, what sort of homework do they need to do ?

Chad

It is true that the 1939 and 1949 AIS checklists are not useful for descriptions. Many old iris catalogs have detailed descriptions, which can be very useful for ID purposes. Catalog pictures are more of a mixed bag - some are good, many are not. Also, just because an iris isn't in commerce doesn't mean it isn't grown - asking around among knowledgeable historic iris enthusiasts in your area or perhaps the communication forum on the HIPS web site might turn up someone who grows that iris and might be willing to share it.

There are a lot of resources available on the HIPS web site, and HIPS also publishes reprints of very useful reference materials. Many of the materials on the HIPS site are only available to members (not a position I agree with, but our faction was outvoted). Short answer - if you wish to get serious about historic iris ID, join HIPS! :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: HIPS web site