KentPfeiffer said:

You don't have to wait for the pods to turn brown, although they are easier to get open once they do. The seeds in this pod are almost certainly mature enough to harvest:



The cross was made about 7 weeks ago and you can see the original bright green color of the pod is starting to fade, especially on the western side. It's ready, the only reason I haven't picked it is because I only have so many containers to dry seeds in and they're full at the moment.

In another week or two, the pod will wrinkle a bit and begin to turn brown. You have to be diligent at that point because they can, over just a couple of days, go from showing a little bit of brown to splitting open and dumping the seeds on the ground. Iris pods can sort of lull you to sleep, they don't seem to change much for weeks at a time and then, bam!, they are ripe and trying to disperse their seeds.

Thank you for posting this. I just went to check the bee pods and they were splitting. I got out there just in time. Will post a picture soon.

This was one of four bee pods from Art School.

Very nice, Barbara. I am glad you caught them before they planted themselves.

grannysgarden said:Very nice, Barbara. I am glad you caught them before they planted themselves.

How easy is it for the Iris seed to grow on there own without any human intervention?

I know nothing about hybridizing Irises -- and I'm trying very hard not to listen to this conversation (lalalalalala ) -- but I'm so excited for you Barbara! I dearly love Arthouse -- and I can't wait to see what you get from it's seeds!!

I'm going to go ahead and pop a pod off tomorrow and open it. Do we let the seeds dry afterwards?

tveguy3 said:Kent, when you harvest them at this stage, do you break them open and dry the seeds, or do you let the pod mature more?

At this point, I would break them open.

I've had some pods that were accidentally broken off that were less than a month old. For those, I leave in the pod intact for as long as possible.

I opened the bee pod on the I. pallida Variegata. It was the smallest at the size of a small walnut. One seed. The other pod is from the yellow NOID with which I showed my neighbor how crosses are done and am leaving as is until dry. (boy, I hope that sentence makes sense.)

I've harvested some pods in the past that were broken off and tried to get them to finish maturing, but they just turned to mush. Some that have broken off and have a lot of stem on them, I've stuck in the ground and let them finish maturing.

Yep, sometimes they turn to mush and sometimes the seeds inside are no good, but sometimes they produce viable seed.

Phillipb2 said:

How easy is it for the Iris seed to grow on there own without any human intervention?

Pretty easy. The myth that iris flowers can change color is (I think) at least partly attributable to people allowing bee pods to mature and scatter seeds around their garden.

I think you are absolutely right about that, Kent. But try and convince an old gardener that his iris did not all turn yellow because they were planted next to a yellow one. (tearing my hair icon here)

Thanks for all the responses!
I think I'll wait another week or so befor picking.

Barry Blyth sticks his stems with pods into the ground as he has to move plants. Not being a 'pro' I wait until they turn brown & the top begins to split. Bonnie can't you say 'bee pod eh?' & sneer? I think that would be more convincing than trying to tell him.

I decided to open about a third of my developing pods. They ranged from 4 large seeds to nearly 30 somewhat smaller pea-size seeds. They looked like kernels of corn - kind of whitish.
I'm drying them now. I have 6 pods left on the stalks.
It's exciting to have seeds develop from my crosses!

whitish means immature seeds. Wait until they turn brown.

I agree with Lucy. I had the best results with pods that were brown and showing a small crack.

Jan -- you changed your avatar again -- what is that beautiful pink thing?????

Muddymitts said:Jan -- you changed your avatar again -- what is that beautiful pink thing?????

, it's very pretty.

My avatar is Strawberry Shake.