Update: Iris douglasiana at Atlanta Botanical Garden

by Kathleen Sayce

Iris douglasiana seedling at Atlanta Botanical Garden

In January 2022, Raleigh Wasser, Horticulture Manager, Atlanta Botanical Garden, sent me a update about their lone Iris douglasiana plant, which is growing in an alpine style bed with excellent drainage. After reading Wasser’s article about the botanical garden’s alpine-style bed in the Rock Garden Quarterly, I wrote a blog post about it in June 2021. 

World of Irises readers may recall that this plant flowered last spring. The plant went on to produce a pod with about ten seeds last summer. Botanic garden staff collected the seeds and sowed them. 

Raleigh’s update takes up the narrative: “We germinated a douglasiana seed! Just put it in some potting mix and left it in a corner of our greenhouse. Of about 10 seeds this is the only one that germinated.”

I suggested she put that pot outside as winter ends, and perhaps other seeds might germinate. Seeds of Pacific Coast native irises may take one to three years to decide to sprout, even from the same pod. However, getting even one seed to germinate and thrive is wonderful! 

Reminder: Seeds of Pacific Coast native irises do not like to germinate in warm, humid conditions. These seeds are fine outside in the snow and rain, so long as it is not too cold. Zone 7, -10°F is about their lower limit. I suspect the Atlantic Botanic Garden greenhouse where the seedling germinated is cool, not warm. 

This extraordinary Pacific Coast iris and its offspring continue to deliver surprises in its Atlanta, Georgia home.

Planting Iris Seeds

By Hooker T. Nichols

Planting iris seeds in our warm Texas climate occurs this time of the year for me.  Usually we have very mild winters in North Texas.  I have found that if I plant the seeds either in the ground or in one-gallon black plastic pots and the seeds germinate before mid-January and we have a cold snap where the temperatures dip into the single digits, they baby iris will die from the extreme cold.

Hooker getting ready to plant his iris seeds.

The seeds have been air-dried after ripening on the iris stalks.  Next, I place the seeds in the miniature plastic bead bags and freeze them until I plant (typically now).  The soil in the pots is comprised of landscape mix topped off with a good potting mix (such as Miracle Grow).  The seeds are planted 1 inch deep.  The soil is kept moist.  The seeds start germinating around mid-March.  When the baby irises reach 3 inches in height and the danger of freezes is past, they are transplanted into the garden with spacing being approximately 4-5 inches apart.  I get 50 to 75% bloom the following spring.  This is a tried and true method for me.

Who knows what will come from the seeds?

Spurias in Oregon - Part II

By Kevin Vaughn

I was most happy that the seedlings had taken after ‘Banned in Boston’ for having large and wide flowers as seedlings from the oranges can often be small, harking back to small-flowered  ‘Elixir’, which is behind most of the oranges. The best of these flowers were sib-crossed to see what will come next from this most interesting group.

As hybridizers we try for things we don’t have already.  Dave Niswonger has pursued pink for a while and others have gone after red.  When Lee Walker’s ’Red War Clouds’ first bloomed for me I was impressed at how much further towards red this spuria was than its predecessors.   A look at the pedigree showed that it had the red and pink approaches developed by others (‘Zulu Chief,’ ‘Countess Zeppelin’ and ‘Pink Candles) so the genes were there for further improvement.  Although the flower was not large, it was rather nicely formed and the plant grew well. Just down the bed from ‘Red War Clouds’ was Barry Blyth’s ‘Mahogany Lord’.

Spuria seedling (and photo) by Kevin Vaughn

‘Mahogany Lord’ is an odd shade, purple sort of flushed red, giving a maroon effect. On paper this looked like a match made in Heaven, as both were approaches to red and hopefully the effect of both would be redder yet.’Mahogany Lord’ was also a bigger, wider flower so improvements in size and form could also result.   Almost 200 seedlings resulted from the crosses, done in both directions. Let’s just say it was easy to dig out the good ones. It was a very sad lot for both form and color. Most were small flowers with rather muddy brown colors predominating. Only one was saved as a slight improvement in color and had at least acceptable form. It will never be introduced but it might be useful as a parent down the road. I should say that ‘Red War Clouds’ is not a horrible parent as I had just 4 seedlings from ‘Lucky Devil’ X ‘Red War Clouds’ and all were nice, not red, but nice dark purples with good form.  Two of these were sib-crossed in an effort to recover the red. I also used Terry Aitken’s lovely ‘Hot Chili’ with these seedlings, so there may be red in my future yet. Several years ago Dave Niswonger commented that he often made crosses that on paper would think you were progressing towards pink and getting nothing close but in a cross not intended for pink they appeared. I suddenly knew exactly how he felt!

A group of spuria seedlings (and photo) by Kevin Vaughn

This year all the selected seedlings from previous years bloomed well and I hope to make final selections of a number of seedlings from the last 4 bloom seasons. These mostly involve crosses of ‘Banned in Boston’ and ‘Angel’s Smile’ crossed to other colors, to take advantage of the form and branching habits of these hybrids.   Most of these crosses gave siblings of similar quality so final decisions will be made based upon bud counts and vigor as well as beauty of the flowers. Seedlings from intercrossing these selections should bloom this spring to see if any of these plants are also going to be yielding parents.

From the Editor: This article first appeared in Spuria News, the bi-annual newsletter by the Spuria Irises Society. Part I, can be found here. Reprinted by permission of the author. The Spuria Iris Society is a section of The American Iris Society, and is dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of spuria iris. For more information about growing spuria irises and/or becoming a member of the society please visit their website.

Iris Hybridizer, Spare That Sprout!

By Griff Crump

Beginning hybridizers are often advised not to make decisions about new seedlings in their first year of bloom.   This is good advice for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a hasty decision could result in sending to the compost pile what might have been an award-winning variety.

Actual practice among hybridizers varies, with some advising that a seedling should be evaluated for at least 3 years and, at the other extreme, some yanking and discarding first-year plants that don't please them.  Hybridizers whose growing space is limited may be forgiven if they fall into the latter category.

Even though my own garden is spatially challenged, I have always tried to follow the "at least 3 years" practice -- at first, simply because I respected the advice of more seasoned hybridizers that the first year of a seedling's bloom doesn't necessarily represent what the flower may do in its second or third year.  Over the course of years, however, experience has taught me that irises not only mature, but do so at different rates.  And maturation isn't the only thing that can change a plant's appearance.  Replanting and moving from partial sun to full sun, for instance, can make quite a difference in stature, and a difference in soil can affect color.

In a recent post on Iris Lovers, I mentioned that I came close to discarding IB 'Coral Chimes' when I first saw it, because it seemed to be the ugly duckling in a bevy of mostly cheery yellow-and-white siblings.  Its single bloom seemed muddy in color.  Nevertheless, I spared it, and still couldn't decide in the second year.  By the third year, however, it had matured into a glorious clump of coral-hued blossoms that reminded me of a fresh-faced choir.  I didn't waste film on it the first 2 years, but here's how it looked in the third.

'Coral Chimes'

I also save ungerminated lots of seeds from what I consider important crosses.  I mention that because the next example of maturation has a really unusual history.  In November, 2000, I planted 45 seeds of Brazilian Holiday X 98G1:(Lady Friend x Chinese Treasure) in three pots.  None germinated, but I saved the pots, letting them ride out the weather unprotected for the next 5 years (I'm stubborn).  In 2005, a single seed sprouted.  I planted it out as 05I1, although there was no "2".  It didn't bloom until 2007, and then was only border bearded in height.  Still, it was an amoena with dark velvet falls, and I was pleased.

05I1

The little thing was planted in a bed which was shaded at midday by a dogwood tree.  After its second year of bloom, in 2008, I replanted it in a full-sun location.  Voila!  In 2009, it bloomed at full TB height, well-branched, AND with a golden glow at its throat.  It won "best seedling" at the Fredericksburg Area Iris Society show in 2011 and was introduced as 'Lezghinka' in 2012.

'Lezghinka'

Finally, another benefit of holding onto seedlings for a while is that you may benefit from others' perspectives.  Seedling 064C10  had, from my point of view, a rich heritage ((Marguerita x Mamauguin) x Best Bet) X Ranks of Blue.  Nonetheless, it sat in my garden and was moved around as a re-select for some time until it produced a huge clump and attracted the attention of other irisarian visitors.  Acting on their advice, I introduced it in 2012 as 'Night Bird'.

'Night Bird'

 So, examine your seedlings with a critical eye, but don't be too quick to toss them.

Hottest New Louisiana Iris Seedlings

By Ron Killingsworth


When you take pollen from one iris and put it on another iris, you are said to be "hybridizing" an iris or "crossing" an iris.  The pollen is taken from the "pollen parent" and the pollen is placed on the "pod parent".  You might consider the pollen parent the father and the pod parent the mother.  The pod parent is the bloom that is going to be pollinated and will produce the seed pod containing the seeds of the new "cross".  There are a lot of people out there dabbing pollen on irises!  Each cross will produce seeds, if you are lucky, and the seeds, when germinated, will produce "seedlings".  Seedlings are new irises produced by your hybridizing efforts.  The Louisiana (LA) iris seed pods are harvested in about July or August in Louisiana and the seeds are potted up and marked with the identifying data of the cross.  With luck the seeds will germinate in the fall and continue to grow through the first bloom season and on through another year, finally blooming in the second year.  So it takes a couple of years to find out what your cross produced.

The new irises called seedlings are identified by a seedling number until such time as the hybridizer decides the iris is worthy of registration and eventual introduction.  Registration is accomplished through the American Iris Society.  A seedling continues to be classified as a seedling, even after it is named and registered, until it is introduced by offering it for sale and publicizing its availability through a commercial grower, or through your own garden.

Here are some lovely 2011 seedlings from  LA iris hybridizers:

Ron Betzer seedling

Peter Jackson seedling

Peter Jackson seedling

Peter Jackson seedling

Peter Jackson seedling

Pat O'Connor seedling

Pat O'Connor seedling

Rodney Barton seedling

And here are some seedling pictures from the 2012 bloom season.

Joe Musacchia seedling

Pat Norvell seedling

Pat O'Connor seedling

Heather Pryor seedling

Harry Wolford seedling

Dufrene seedling

Dufrene seedling

As you can see, Louisiana irises come in just about every color under the sun.  Now that you are all excited about making some new irises, take at look at the web site of the Society for Louisiana Irises and learn more about hybridizing irises.  Give it a try.  You might just produce the next "Dykes" award winner!

Every Tom, Dick and Harry of Louisiana Irises

By Ron Kiingsworth

When I first became active in Society for Louisiana Irises (SLI), I became friends with three long-time members: Harry Wolford, Tom Dillard, and Dick Sloan.  I decided I would hybridize three LA irises and name them for Tom, Dick, and Harry.

Hybridizing irises is a time-consuming process, and it helps to set out with a specific goal in mind. In 2007 I decided to cross two dark Louisiana (LA) irises with the goal of putting a larger signal on the pod parent.  (The signal is the flash of gold you see below.)  I chose the Mary Swords DeBaillon winning LA iris 'Night Thunder' (Morgan, R 2000) as the "pollen parent" and 'Jeri' (Bertinot, N 1984) as the "pod parent."  In other words, I took the pollen from 'Night Thunder' and put the pollen on 'Jeri.'  I made several crosses on different days to insure that some of the crosses would set seed.

'Night Thunder' - the "daddy"

'Jeri' - the pod parent or "mom"

'Jeri' has only a tiny gold line signal while 'Night Thunder' has a large "steeple" gold signal.  I was really hoping to get a 'Jeri' with 'Night Thunder's' signal.  (Let me point out that both of these irises are darker than these pictures reflect.  I have trouble with digital pictures of really dark irises, they always seem to shift in color to appear lighter than they are in reality.) 

These crosses produced several nice seed pods and from the pods I harvested about 80 seeds.  I planted the seeds from each pod in separate large plastic pots and marked them as "Jeri X Night Thunder."  I was successful in germinating about 30 seeds and wound up with over 25 seedlings.  I planted these seedlings out in rows in one of my flower beds and the seedlings grew through the fall of 2007, the whole year of 2008, and finally in the spring of 2009 my seedlings bloomed! 

What do you get when you cross a dark, almost black, iris with another dark iris?  Well, when my seedlings finally bloomed I was truly amazed.  I did in fact have quite a few dark irises.  Some looked just like 'Jeri' while others looked more like 'Night Thunder.'  Quite a few looked like 'Jeri' with 'Night Thunder's' signal.  But what amazed me was the other colors this cross produced.  Oh, those sneaky genes!

'Our Friend Harry' (Killingsworth, R 2011)

 One of the seedlings was almost red.  It has the nice large signals from 'Night Thunder'.  I moved this seedling to another bed and used every method I knew to increase the number of plants.  It bloomed again in 2010 and was still red!  It was red again in 2011 and the bloom count and positions were sufficient so I registered it as 'Our Friend Harry.'

Another seedling from the 'Jeri' X 'Night Thunder' cross turned out to be a lighter red and it too proved to be a good garden iris with lots of blooms and bud positions.  I registered it in 2011 as 'Our Friend Tom.'

'Our Friend Tom' (Killingsworth, R 2011)

I continue to grow many of the other seedlings from this cross and will eventually chose a few to register.  One of them is very dark with a velvety look and with 'Night Thunder's' signals, which I set out to create.

Seedling S-07-09-920

I really like this seedling because the stands "stand up" and the falls stay straight out.  Another seedling from this cross has stands that stand up and falls that droop down.

So, that takes care of Tom and Harry, but what about Dick?  Earlier, in 2009, I registered an iris as 'Our Friend Dick' (Killingsworth, R 2009).  It was a cross between 'Dural Bluebird' (Taylor, JC 1993) and 'Hush Money' (Dunn, M 1998).  'Dural Bluebird' is, as its name suggests, a nice blue, while 'Hush Money' is a creamy colored iris with a blue cast.  This cross also produced irises of many colors and I chose a seedling from this 2004 cross to name 'Our Friend Dick.'

'Dural Bluebird' - the daddy

'Hush Money' - the mom

'Our Friend Dick' - the child

So, there you have it -- every Tom, Dick and Harry of LA irises!

After the Meltdown

Rebloomers tend to be among the first tall bearded irises to bloom in the spring, and they often color the garden for a week before the oncers begin blooming.  In early April, 'Tara's Choice' and several other rebloomers were looking great.  Unfortunately, I knew it was way too early for them to be safe in my Kentucky, zone 6, garden.  

'Tara's Choice' (Wilkerson 2004)

As I finished my last AIS blog entry, the garden was hit by a heavy frost extending over three consecutive nights.  Many of my seedlings were in full bloom and I'd begun making crosses for the 2012 year.  They turned out to be busy work.  The immediate concern was damage.  What was damaged and how bad was it?  

Frost damaged stalk

It was bad.  All stalks were cut down by the frosts.  Most of the bloom was gone for the season, but a small number of irises put up new stalks.  Some of the newer seedlings managed to open a bloom here and there.  Although nothing could be evaluated due to damaged blooms, it was nice to see the colors.  Who would have expected 'Born to Exceed' X 'Renown' (blue bi-tone and white) to produce a yellow seedling?  I'd hoped to expand my photo collection, but unfortunately, I was not able to take many pictures. This blog will be handicapped or limited to existing photos until I have another good bloom season.

There were no pods in the tall bearded section for 2012.  About twenty crosses had been made when the frost hit and none survived.  Another ten crosses were made post frost and none of these took. Recently germinated seedlings were frost bit but few were killed, fortunately.

Since the spring bloom was three weeks early, so it should be no surprise that rebloom also started earlier this year.  'Pinkness' (Byers 89) tried to spring bloom, was damaged. and it was the first introduced iris to put up a new stalk, followed by 'Gate of Heaven' (Zurbrigg 2004) and 'Artistic Showoff' (Wilkerson 2011.)  This is early for my garden, but there are reports of early rebloom in many parts of the US of A.

'Pinkness' (Byers 1989)

'Gate of Heaven' (Zurbrigg 2004) (Yum!)

'Artistic Showoff' (Wilkerson 2011)

Even before these three irises bloomed, two of my summer blooming seedlings gave a show.  Both 2025-02Re and 2130-01Re have bloomed in July but started rebloom in June this year. Both have been used in breeding. 

2025-02Re Wilkerson seedling (Total Recall x 1625-01Re (Star Gate x  (Violet Returns x Breakers) 

2131-01Re Wilkerson seedling (Again & Again X Echo Location) 

I also have a couple of seedlings with stalks showing color.  They won't open by June 25, but I'll give you a little peek at what I'll see in a few days!  2102-04Re has been a favored seedling since it was transplanted from the seedling pot back in the fall of 2007.  At that point, I was impressed with its great root system, and I fully expected it to rebloom.  My enthusiasm gradually diminished as I watched it set bloom stalks each spring, right after bloom season, and waited (impatiently) for signs of a fall stalk.  Each year it sat and waited for spring to send up the stalks.  In 2010 I moved a piece of it to the new beds.  The clump opened three stalks post-frost season this spring.  Last week I was thrilled when I finally spotted a rebloom stalk.  I was shocked because I'd given up.  More about this one in a later blog.  It has great breeding potential.

2102-04Re Wilkerson seedling (Star Gate x (Bridge In Time x (Feed Back x Titan's Glory) X Arctic Fox

1907-10Re Wilkerson seedling (Blatant X All Revved Up) 

1907-10Re bloomed all summer in 2011, had spring stalks, and it has another stalk ready to show color now.  This shows potential for a good 2012 rebloom season.  I hope to have a lot to report in August.  At least I can dream.

Much of the country had an early bloom season in the spring.  Did any of your irises get hit by frost?  Have any of your reblooming irises sent up new stalks already this summer?

What's Happening in Luminata and Plicata Irises?

First, I want to confess my ignorance in the various new classes that are developing in plicata breeding. Sure I know what a plicata iris pattern is and I am fairly sure I know what a luminata is. After that, it begins to get fuzzy. I am getting old and you young guys and gals need to cut me some slack. You will be here some day too.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I decided that plicatas were very overlooked and I wanted to start some new crosses along those lines. I set aside a couple of special guest beds and acquired a lot of named plicatas. Some of these were from the 80s and 90s and I didn't know of the exact patterns that were represented in these varieties in the 2000s. I started my crosses and I was quite pleased with my early results. There was a new line developing as these crosses were made. Luminatas started showing up regularly. I got interested in these and started making luminata crosses. I soon learned that some parents were good for adding form to the luminata crosses, even if they were regular plicatas.

I have had what I think is very good success with my plicata crosses, and I see some very good new seedlings on the horizon that I think will be quite different than what is out there. I wanted to share two these luminata seedlings with you and see what you think. Both crosses involve a luminata on one side and regular plicata on the other side. If they aren't luminatas, just let me know and I will be happy to call a spade a spade. At any rate, things are happening in plicatas. Watch for the next wave of new things.

Thank you for listening.

Respectfully,
Jim Hedgecock

Comanche Acres Iris Gardens

Double Crossed

During the winter the hybridizer does not hibernate.  He plans.  (So does she.)  Reviewing his goals, assessing their degree of achievement, noting successes, targets missed, failed crosses to be attempted again, he begins to identify the new candidates, scrutinizing their pedigrees, looking for relationships and desired traits and, finally, lists the crosses to be made in some order of priority.  This last is most important, because, when he steps into the garden, he will be surrounded by beauties saying, "Cross me, cross me!"  And any number of likely suitors may be at hand.  It is at this point, if the hybridizer lacks sterling resolve, that the winter's work may go down the drain.

But our hybridizer resists the siren song and marches steadily toward the location of The Plan's cross No. 1, which is . . . where?  There's no bloom.  There's no bloomstalk! The damned thing isn't going to bloom!  Aaargh!  Cross No.1 and several others that were to be made with the same cultivar go off the list.  But our hybridizer has a backup  --  Plan B.  Elsewhere in the garden is a parent of the slacker, also an Award of Merit winner and possessing essentially the same qualities as its progeny.  Though not the ideal, it will do as a substitute.

"Cross me, cross me!", the flowers sing seductively as he passes among them, but he ignores their plaints and forges resolutely ahead to the location of the parent.

I need not inflict on the reader the hybridizer's reaction on finding that the parent isn't blooming either.

Two Award of Merit winners, parent and offspring, long established in the garden, fed and cared for as all the others,yet not blooming, while the rest of the garden blossoms merrily along.  It bolsters my suspicion that there is a genetic code in irises, of which we are ignorant, that governs bloom, germination and maybe other aspects of their growth regardless of weather and general growing conditions.

Despite the failure of Plans A and B, the rest of the list goes well, providing opportunity to appreciate the maturing of various seedlings and even start some new lines.  In fact, just as the hybridizer was singing the blues about the missing prime crosses, which were in the red spectrum, his attention was drawn not to just one, but to several newly maturing blues and blue/blacks.

This is 05B11, (Titan's Glory, Holy Night, Sweeter Than Wine) X Ranks of Blue.  It has taken a while to mature, but is ready to go.

 

Next is 072022 (Stealth Fighter X Ranks of Blue), also ready,

And a passel of their relatives slated for further breeding, including sibling 072O21,

072O19, also a sibling,

and several of their sisters and their cousins and their aunts, including 962N1,

which would be a bit of "back to the future" engineering, but wouldn't it be nice to have a reblooming "black" amoena?

To further relieve his frustration at the demise of Plan A, the visiting president of another AIS chapter points out a seedling to which the hybridizer hasn't paid enough attention.  It's 064C10 ((Margarita x Momauguin) x Best Bet) X Ranks of Blue, on the purple side of blue and smelling like a chocolate factory!

Now for the hard part  --  finding a name!

And even though he thinks a genetic code is responsible for prime targets A and B not blooming, our hybridizer is going to move them, just in case.

--  Griff Crump