Has anyone collected any bee pods this year?

This was the year I was going to do no crossing! The bees and other insects were busy on my flowers.

Normally, I would not bother...but


Who knows what will come of this?

Yeah, and a few others too!

Did you save any?

The only bee pod I know of is on Art School. I get bee pods on Art School every year. I need to go look around my yard for more.

I noticed a bee pod on Drinks At Sunset too, When I had Art School it always had pods, but were always empty.

Interesting Tom, all of my Art School pods have been full of seeds, and lots of seeds at that.

I never have never saved "bee" pods. I suspect most are selfed pods rather then "bee" pods. The wind shakes the pollen and tiny insects like mites and thribs dart around leaving grains of pollen of the same variety they inhabit. I found this to be true of Pacifica "bee" pods. Since the number of sets this year has been terrible I am going to save the very few "bee" pods I find. Of the thousands of stalks at the ranch, only ONE "bee" pod. Only about 20 crosses made there and not a single take. The pod that exists is on Vista Point. Cross set at home was bad as well and will have the fewest crosses set ever (some 60 yrs. now). I am going to save the 3 or 4 self set pods since I have always been curious at what they might produce. After all, the DM Debby Rairdon came from such a pod.

Barbara ~ Did you ever sow any of those seeds?

Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll all be empty! I wasn't going to start any more this year, and concentrate on what I have and carefully plan my crosses for the future.

That's why I have started saving pollen. I'm going to put the envelopes of pollen in the freezer. That might not work if the power goes out and the generator doesn't immediately come on. I am "lobbying" for a "standby generator", on that comes on immediately when the power goes out. We'll see....

How do you save pollen? Are there some articles that I can read? I appreciate any info. Thanks.

I normally don't save them. This year I have a large pod on Trumped. This one I will keep.

I had lots of seeds from LA bee pods last year and many of the seedlings survived. Going to see what the bees created before saving more so I reluctantly cut the pods off this year.

Thanks for the insights, GuiseppeJ. Do you have any thoughts on why some anthers will be loaded with pollen, but so many are just smooth? I didn't make many crosses this year, but not many " took". A big exception is a pod on Mardi Gras Ball fertilized with your Starring, a fave!
The database says Starring has produced 116 children!

evelyninthegarden said:Barbara ~ Did you ever sow any of those seeds?
...

Nope, I gave about half the seeds to someone on NGA. The other half are still sitting in a pill bottle with last years date and Art School X bee pod…
The bee pods from this year are still on the stalks.

The anthers have probably been "cleaned" off by thrips in particular and cucumber beetles. While Starring has been a good parent but the best parent of the 4 sibs (Next Millennium, Connection, Snowed In, Starring) is the first--Next Millennium. The cross of Romantic Evening X 88-180P is what they come from and 180P is the progenitor of the line &speckle pattern.

Interesting information. Great that you are sharing you knowledge.

tveguy3 said:Interesting information. Great that you are sharing you knowledge.

Yes, and thank you.

Mr. Ghio ~ It would be fantastic if you were to write a book about your vast store of knowledge that you have gained over the years about hybridizing.

There's lots of crossed pods and bee pods out there. I've already tossed some bee pods out on the beds I've cleaned up. The pods are huge this year, I've never seen them so big.

My iris beds were full of pollen beetles this year. Not only did they strip the pollen clean on most of the blooms, I think they're responsible for some of the bee pods.

Rob ~ You mean those black beetles that plague my irises every year? Yes, I think they do more pollinating than the bees do. I squish them every chance I get. I see thrips too!

I'm beginning to see the swelling of seed pods on some of the earliest crosses I made. I've also lost some of them to rot already. So far I've found 2 bee pods, one on Drinks At Sunset, and one on High Desert.

These are the pollen beetles.

They got worse than this as the bloom season progressed.

cwwilson3 said:How do you save pollen? Are there some articles that I can read? I appreciate any info. Thanks.

Hi! I'm sorry that I got back to you so late....I had to find the link for you.

http://www.telp.com/irises/lau...

Here is all you need to know. Also on YouTube there are quite a few videos of how exactly to pollenize an iris.

There is additional information on the website of Winterberry Iris Gardens.

http://www.winterberryirises.c...
Then on the right hand column
there is link to:

Hybridizing Bearded Irises