I'm new at this. I've had some luck with the pollination part and have 8 lovely big seed
pods for my efforts. I write down all the crosses in a notebook and put tags on them.
Next will be waiting for the seeds to develop and the pods to dry. Then plant the seeds in pots. Should I keep them in our little greenhouse over the winter?
Would someone be willing to explain what "lining out" means? I'm sure I'll have more questions!

I'm also very new at this but I know what lining out is.
When you plant all of one cross in a pot, you will probably want to line them out or separate them and make a row of them in the garden.
Kind of like with my dayliles
I have a whole cross in a cup and I will want to line them out because they will all be different.


I have about 15 Iris seed pods! (Out of hundreds of crosses)

We had a thread with some information on it about hybridizing that answers some of your questions. Here's the link.
The thread "Starting iris seeds." in Irises forum

I was at around 90% success in pollinating some crosses. We had a heat wave awhile back that shriveled up most of the young plump seed pods. I have around 12 pods remaining out of the 40-50 crosses I tried.

It will be nice to eventually see everyone's efforts.

Thanks for the link to that October thread, Tom.!! I missed it back then, but I've got it
bookmarked now. So much good information, and I haven't even read all of it yet!

I made 28 crosses, and so far have 8 big pods, although it looks like some smaller ones are coming on.

Now, another question. Let's say you have two favorites that you want to cross, but they bloom at different
times. Can you save pollen? and how long will it keep?

I have heard that you can keep it for a while in the fridge, but have never tried that. I think Rob did some of that, maybe he can tell us how it worked.

So, you have the limitation of using whatever is blooming at the same time?

I agree. It will be fun to see what those of us who are trying our hands at hybridizing
come up with!
Thank you Ashton, for explaining very clearly what "lining out" is !

Jan, do we have your permission to use this thread for our experiment pics? Should we start a new one for us newbies? We need a place to collectively compare notes and ask questions and show off later down the road.

Love your new sleepy cat avatar.

Jan, I think we talked about pollen on the other thread. The pollen can be saved, preferably in a breathable container. Someone suggested using the little coin envelopes that are used by coin collectors, Don Spoon uses petri dishes. The pollen can be refrigerated for up to 6 weeks, and sometimes longer. Here is a link to a page by Don Spoon of Winterberry Iris Gardens. He goes into a lot of detail that you probably don't need, but about half way down the page are sections describing "How To Cross" (Don describes his method) and "Long Live Pollen".

http://winterberryirises.com/h...

Hi Jan congrats on the pods it is a lot of fun going through the process and watching them bloom for the 1st time. I have really enjoyed mine this year very exciting to come out every morning and find something new good or bad I'm not sure how well I am doing this year with my pollen daubing some pods showing but the heavy rain has destroyed a lot of them we have had 1 day of dry weather and then non stop rain for 3 days things aren't drying out and pollen will not take when it's wet or at least not for me my guess is I probably have a good week of bloom left here if the rain lets up so I can work on them.

I grow my seedlings in a greenhouse and they do wonderful you can make up a lot of growing time by starting the pots in there the one cross I planted outside to see the difference this year the plants are barely 6" tall right now but the pots that were started in the greenhouse in January are huge some look like they are mature already and the germination is so much better they really take off with the heat so if you have a greenhouse definitely use it. It will require you giving them a haircut when you plant them but they really take off once they get in the ground.

Just getting back to this thread...a very busy week.
Thank you all for the input and the links! I'm absorbing as much as my brain allows!

Brad, from what I saw of your seedlings, you could be the next big hybridizer!

Celia - Yes,of course! I'd love to see the results of everyone's hybridizing here!

Thanks, Jan. Mine won't be much, I'm thinking. I just crossed whatever was blooming at the time just to see if I could get seed. Seven pods appear to be swelling.

I did the same thing, Celia - and I focused on the largest blooms.
Congrats on your results!

remember to cover the seed pods to protect them from the little varmints that bore tiny holes in them and eat the seeds. Also, some seed pods will look wonderful and not have any seeds in it. huh?

The seeds I planted from the bee cross with Brevity has not grown any seedlings. The ones from Casper's Shadow has eight.... down a bit after all this rain, and the bee cross from Cat's Eye has around 20 little irises.

CS little plants are taller and more robust but the ones from CE are growing little fans faster. They look like they can go the course. I cant wait to see each one bloom.

I have porous bags to put over them. I will do that when I get home tonight.

Me too.

I have a few seedpods developing nicely. I found a couple large ones on the germanica, too.