Is it too early to talk about pods? Do people think one ought not to talk about them until they open?

Last summer I had about 30 "bee pods." There was not a single viable seed in any of them. Not one! Hand fertilized pods apparently are a different matter.

Modern TBs with larger space on the flowers are less likely to have fertile bee pods.

I actually wasn't talking about bee pods. This thread was meant to be an invitation to talk about what crosses you made this year, if you are someone who does that.

It's never to early to talk about pods. I wasn't going to make a lot of crosses this year, but I ended up making more than I should have. As luck would have it, only 4 of them developed into pods. For the first time I was able to get a pod on Strawberry Shake. I've tried to use it both ways for a long time, and this year, when practically nothing worked, I got a pod on it. I crossed it with Hope Springs Eternal. It's still not harvested, so I have no idea if or how many seeds are in it.

Strawberry Shake

Hope Springs Eternal
I also crossed the pollen from one of my seedlings ( Super Hero X Tuscan Summer) to Hold The Line, and have a pod developing.

Super Hero x Tuscan Summer seedling

Hold The Line It's more yellow then my picture shows.

On a whim, I crossed pollen from Noble Gesture to Maui Wowie, and got a pod. First time getting Noble Gesture pollen to work.

I also crossed two of Brad's seedling, Pollen from 12-12-B with 13-4 (Jealous Guy X Bratislavan Prince Prince)

Jealous Guy X Bratislavan Prince Prince



12-12-B Smoke and Thunder x Class Ring

Maybe in a few years we'll see what happens. One thing for sure I'm glad I didn't get pods from all of my crosses, or I would be in trouble.

Yippee! I love those Brad seedlings. I'd take them as they are - wowza!

tveguy3 said: It's never to early to talk about pods. I wasn't going to make a lot of crosses this year, but I ended up making more than I should have. As luck would have it, only 4 of them developed into pods. For the first time I was able to get a pod on Strawberry Shake. I've tried to use it both ways for a long time, and this year, when practically nothing worked, I got a pod on it. I crossed it with Hope Springs Eternal. It's still not harvested, so I have no idea if or how many seeds are in it.

Strawberry Shake

Hope Springs Eternal
I also crossed the pollen from one of my seedlings ( Super Hero X Tuscan Summer) to Hold The Line, and have a pod developing.

Super Hero x Tuscan Summer seedling

Hold The Line It's more yellow then my picture shows.

On a whim, I crossed pollen from Noble Gesture to Maui Wowie, and got a pod. First time getting Noble Gesture pollen to work.

I also crossed two of Brad's seedling, Pollen from 12-12-B with 13-4 (Jealous Guy X Bratislavan Prince Prince)

Jealous Guy X Bratislavan Prince Prince



12-12-B Smoke and Thunder x Class Ring

Maybe in a few years we'll see what happens. One thing for sure I'm glad I didn't get pods from all of my crosses, or I would be in trouble.

I was smitten by an intro last year byPaul Black called Cast a Tall Shadow

and its sib Blackberry Bandit he intro'd this year


Which is Haunted Heart X Clotho's Web



So I decided to make my own. I have a few pods on that

Since it was handy, I also did a cross of Clotho to Reckless Abandon and Mood Ring and got a pod of each. What will that be like? Who knows.

I continued with my Aristocracy project - got a pod from crossing it with Haunted Heart. The Smoke and Thunder cross failed. I never would have thought about crossing Smoke and Thunder with Class Ring. Maybe I'll try that next year - Paul's seedling is stunning.

I had just 2 blooms on my Festival of Lights

and crossed that on Haunted Heart too. HH bloomed really heavily this year - and got a pod!!!

Speaking of bee pods - I've never had one that had seeds in it. This year I had quite a few, including on Aristocracy. They all rotted and fell off except one, on "So Excited" - we'll see what happens... I guess I must be the only one who loves that iris, it's a 2020 intro and Mid America no longer lists it.

Haunted Heart has made some nice irises. I haven't been able to get it to set a pod, but had some luck using the pollen,

Wow! So surprised to hear you say that. It just set pods on every flower I tried. I noticed something and I'm wondering if this is just a coincidence: on the double socketed blooms, the first opening flower won't take while the 2nd flower is unopened, and the second flower takes well once the first flower is finished.

tveguy3 said: Haunted Heart has made some nice irises. I haven't been able to get it to set a pod, but had some luck using the pollen,

Lyn, that's a very valuable observation!

I have heard that crossing onto the later blooms is usually more successful, but then I have had luck some years crossing on the first bloom. Go figure. I wonder, but have no proof, if because of the on and off cold and late spring we had, that the plants were too stressed???? All of the crosses that made pods for me this year were the crosses I made later in the season.

I made several crosses this year (first year doing so) and had a few pods. They have since browned and started to crack so I opened them, but there were no seeds in any of them. Does this suggest an error in technique? Or perhaps I didn't wait long enough to open them? I know bee pods typically don't have anything, but these were ones I crosses myself.

Likely. Make sure the anthers have actually split, exposing the pollen, before picking them. And be sure you have read up on the style anatomy.

If you harvested the pods too early, they wouldn't be brown or cracked, The seeds would still be there, only they would be green. Sometimes the iris develop pods without seeds, My guess is that they got a bit of pollen material on the stigmatic lip, just enough to trigger the plant into making a pod, but not enough to fertilize the pod to make seeds. I may be wrong with this, but it's my hypothesis.

This video with Paul Black shows the technique for making crosses. It might be helpful for those wanting to give it a try.
https://www.bing.com/videos/se...

Somewhere on here are threads about hybridizing, maybe you could stroll through some older threads to find them. I know it's come up many many times over the years.

DaisyDo said: Likely. Make sure the anthers have actually split, exposing the pollen, before picking them. And be sure you have read up on the style anatomy.

I don't understand this answer. Are you suggesting that a flower might make a pod in response to the stigmatic lip being touched, even if no viable pollen is applied? If so, that would explain all the empty bee pods - an insect has touched them but did not transfer pollen in the encounter.

I might test this theory -- if no one knows the answer - next year by touching some flowers.

The basic guidance I once read is to use a fresh flower as the pod parent but let the flower used for pollen be open for a few days to let the pollen mature. I actually look at the anther to see if it has visible pollen grains.

tveguy3 said: If you harvested the pods too early, they wouldn't be brown or cracked, The seeds would still be there, only they would be green. Sometimes the iris develop pods without seeds, My guess is that they got a bit of pollen material on the stigmatic lip, just enough to trigger the plant into making a pod, but not enough to fertilize the pod to make seeds. I may be wrong with this, but it's my hypothesis.

This video with Paul Black shows the technique for making crosses. It might be helpful for those wanting to give it a try.
https://www.bing.com/videos/se...

Somewhere on here are threads about hybridizing, maybe you could stroll through some older threads to find them. I know it's come up many many times over the years.

So I watched the video. Paul showed a pot of his sprouted seedlings that look like there were a bunch of seeds in there and every one had sprouted.

My 4 seedlings are each in their original 1 gal pot along with 3 other seeds (I put 4 in each pot) that didn't sprout. Folks have said that it sometimes takes 2 years for the seeds to sprout.

What do you do? Do you leave the ones that are growing in the original pot instead of putting them in the ground so as not to disturb the unsprouted seeds or do you take the ones that are growing out and to hell with the unsprouted seeds?

And on on a slightly different vein - I know some of you are peony mavens. Well, today I discovered that some of my peonies made pods!!!!! I don't recall seeing this before. It would be super interesting to grow them. Has anyone ever done this?

https://shuncy.com/article/gro...


here's a helpful site, lyn. i haven't tried it because i ca not successfully grow peonies in my area. but, i did try once in the bay area; unsuccessfully.

shizen said: https://shuncy.com/article/gro...


here's a helpful site, lyn. i haven't tried it because i ca not successfully grow peonies in my area. but, i did try once in the bay area; unsuccessfully.

I had some volunteer peony seedling grow a couple years ago, but they never made it through the winter.