Dry Summers, Summer Water and Pacifica Iris

Kathleen Sayce

Pacifica Iris, or PCI, thrive in a mediterranean climate––that’s a small ‘m’ for the climate, not the geographic area. This climate type has a wet fall-winter-spring period, with rain starting in early fall to winter, and ending in late winter to late spring, depending on latitude. In the Pacific Northwest, cool wet weather can last from six to ten months, and very dry weather (no measurable precipitation) two to six months. Most years, the August-September period is very dry. Going south on the West Coast, the wet season shrinks until in southern California, it lasts a few weeks in midwinter, and the dry season lasts most of the year. 

Iris chrysophylla x I. douglasiana, a large leaved, branched flowered form that flowers in June. 

It’s August now, and that means the West Coast is well into the annual dry season, from northern Baja California, Mexico to somewhere along the British Columbia coast. My garden is dry, and I’ve started supplemental water to some plants, but my PCI do not get supplemental water. The last of the PCI are ripening seeds, most have already open seed pods, and they are toughing out the dry season in a warm dormancy. Roots are not growing. These irises wait out the dry weather.

Seed pods from the same plant as above, 2 months later. 

I could clean up plants at this time, but I have learned that if the dry season is prolonged, then PCI will abandon more leaves, and I’ll have to take those leaves off later. So I limit my cleanup to removing vigorous weeds, dead plants, and any plants I want to remove from a particular spot. There’s no replanting this time of year. Plants that are dug out now will not reestablish if replanted. If I were watering regularly, I might be able to transplant in a few weeks. 

On watering PCI in summer, opinions are mixed. Some say no water at all. Many  nursery growers have found that PCI are fine with regular summer watering. As Secretary for the Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris, I’ve been offered many opinions from members all over the world on this subject, and have concluded that PCI do not like hot, alkaline water. Cool, neutral to acidic water is fine. I prefer not to drag hoses or sprinklers, so I do not water them, though my plants would probably be bigger and have more flowers if I did supply water all summer. 

Iris tenax, flowering mid June, on one of the last rainy days of the year. 

Late summer is a curious time in the garden:  Flowers are still abundant on many perennial and annual plants, which will keep flowering with supplemental water into fall. Butterflies make the rounds on warm days, feeding on those flowers. The end of second flight of Anise Swallowtails is still underway. Margined White butterflies are on their fourth or fifth adult generation for the year. Soon, the occasional south-migrating Monarch butterfly may pass through. Even these plants are shedding leaves, setting seed, getting ready for summer’s end. Meanwhile, fall flowering bulbs and perennials are starting to show buds and first flowers. 

The clear signal that fall is coming is birds migrating south. I live on a large estuary, Willapa Bay, where tens of thousands of shorebirds, ducks and other waterfowl fly through each fall. Shorebird numbers are picking up from week to week. Bald Eagles fledged their chicks; the adults will leave by September for inland rivers, to fish for fall migrating salmon. I hear the fledgling eagles call for their parents by mid August, looking for those formerly attentive parents.

New visitors, two Indian peacocks, check out the flower beds. The turquoise, silver and blue eyes in the tail feathers would make a striking PCI flower.  

 This week, there was a new bird species in the yard. It’s not migratory, and yes, it is introduced. Two Indian peacocks wandered into the yard. Sightings have traveled up and down the bay for several miles this summer, and this week, it was our turn for a visit. The editor of our bulletin asked me a few weeks ago about my hybridizing goals for PCI. A PCI with the brilliance of a peacock’s tail seems a very worthy goal!

Reblooming Iris Program: Zone 6: On the Cheap

by Betty Wilkerson

Many of the improvements in irises have been made by the backyard gardener, and some of their creations have won The Dykes Medal. You can spend a small fortune, hunting up fancy tweezers and paint brushes, but it's possible to breed irises without all this. When I started my rebloom program, I had a child in elementary school, and two in high school, so I couldn't justify spending much money on the iris program. I bought a cheap iris colletion from Schreiners and the next year I ran across a really cheap fall blooming iris collection from Fields, a mail order catalog. Then, I bought a few rebloomers from Monty Byers. 

An empty milk jug, cut into strips, and then cut again, made good tags.  I punched holes in one corner, with a hole punch, and used some orange yarn from my crochet bag to make ties. They were neat, but the birds really liked them, too, and used several in building their spring nests. If one was missing, I learned to look to the tree tops.  The tags would glisten and reflect sunshine from up in the trees. After I moved to Allen county in 2003, I switched to strips of plastic venetian blinds shown below.  To prevent fading, I use paint markers. I made 150 tags so I would not have to reuse any during any season. Early on, I bought a couple of pair of tweezers from Wal-Mart. I stressed over the method of pollen transfer until I found I was comfortable with using my ring finger as the implement of transfer.  Works fine for me.

A few years back, I bought a large garden bag that will hold all of my hybridizing equipment, and then some. Before the new bag, I would put everything in a gallon size ziplock bag.  The new bag is lined with pockets on the inside, which is convenient for pollen envelopes, tweezers, seed packets, nozzles for the hose, etc.. It even has a clip for my keys, if I choose to use it.  

Garden Bag

Hybridizing Tags

Lace Bonnets

The first summer I was in Allen County, 2004, a pod went missing.  It was my favorite from 'Strictly Ballroom' X 'Mariposa Skies.' Sorry, I do not have pictures of the irises. I spent way too much time looking for the pod, but with absolutely no luck. The following winter I made a bunch of these lace bonnets to protect my pods from the deer.  Haven't lost a pod since 2004.

Personal Size Envelopes
for Seed

Once the seed are harvested from the pods they are usually wet or at least damp and they need a home until time to plant.  Rather than take chances of getting the seed mixed up, it's just easier to go straight to the envelopes.  I put all of the permanent information onto the envelope, pod parent, pollen parent, and seed count, then I put the seed into the envelopes.  I place it/them on an envelope rack to dry.  I shake the envelope each day and turn it upside down. This is to make sure all seed fall to the other side.  They are usually dry within a week and can rest until planting time at the end of Oct.  The soil must be cool.

Mum Pots for Germination

Chicken Wire

Soil should be placed in the pots about six weeks before the seed are planted.  A natural settling of the soil in the pots will leave air in the soil, important, where tamping does not. In my zone 6 garden it's important to put chicken wire (mine is plastic and reusable) over the pots to keep out the vermin.  In my zone 6 garden the average date to expect sprouts is April 1.

Landscape Fabric

As I've grown older and more crippled, I've adjusted the way I care for my iris. The cost of my operation went up at the same time.  DeWitt woven landscape fabric is really good.  I buy it in big rolls that will cover about five beds.  I like the stuff with the green lines because it helps make straight rows and I need all the help I can get.  Each spring I must check for crowding and cut the landscape fabric where needed.  I use a thick grade of black plastic for the paths. I use a piece of pvc pipe with paint markers every six inches to measure between plants.

If you want to make some iris crosses, but don't think you can afford the equipment?  Please give it another thought.  Be creative. We need reblooming hybridizers in the middle and cooler states, zones 4-6.  To get rebloom you will need to use really strong rebloom stock. I'm always willing to discuss anything iris!  Just find me on Facebook or e-mail me at bridgeintime@aol.com. Put "irises" in the subject line. Good luck.

Part Two: Remineralizing soils and the PCI response in my Garden

Kathleen Sayce

Yes, as a result of my soil experiments there were more flowers than ever in my garden in 2013. But it's the number of Pacific Coast Iris (PCI) pods that was astounding. In prior years I'd seen around 50-70 seed pods in total. I know this because I use organza mesh bags on ripening pods to keep them from tossing seeds all over the garden, and I could count the bags as they went out. I'd purchased 400 bags and used 70 in 2012, on every pod I could find. And this had seemed typical at the time, based on prior years' seed sets.

Tools of the seed collecting trade:  mesh bags, paper bags, and somewhere in the bottom of the basket, a writing implement and clippers. 

By 2013 I used every mesh bag, some of them several times, shifting from early ripening pods to later ripening pods. A friend found a few more bags at a yard sale and gave them to me; I used them as well. I cut pods off many plants, needing at most 15 pods of each variety for the SPCNI seed exchange, and threw away at least 100 pods. So in one twelve-month period, my irises went from producing around 70 pods, to producing around 500 pods. The only thing that changed was the soil's mineral nutrition.

Some of the extra pods.  Look closely at the top of the image to see seeds spilling out in the lawn. Just a few of the many pods I tossed in 2014, from the plants that set seeds.

There was also a major weather difference that reduced the seed set for many PCI. Many of my well established plants are hybrids that flower in May and early June. A typical year has PCI in flower from April until late June or early July. We had a late wet spring in 2013. I did not get any seeds from the early flowering PCI. The later flowering species and species crosses that bloomed in mid June were more successful, as they flowered in drier weather, and bumblebees could actually get to their flowers. So this astounding pod production was despite very poor early-season weather for seed setting.

One hybrid I very much wanted seed from, 'Finger Pointing', did not set any seed at all!

PCI 'Finger Pointing' managed to hit the wrong weather to set seed in 2014. 

In 2014, I resampled the soil, had another mix of minerals formulated based on the new soil test, put these out in winter––this time we did it all in one application, and then I again waited for spring. I also added compost to most beds, and continued to plant new plants with a mix of compost and biochar. My hope is that these high-test carbon compounds will help with mineral retention in coming years. Ongoing soil tests will tell me how successful this is.

Again the weather did not cooperate. In spring 2014, my area had an early, very warm hot spell that lasted several weeks, with temperatures in the low 90s to low 100s––for the South Coast of Washington, it was hot. In response, irises that normally flower over three to four months all flowered in less than six weeks. The bumblebees were badly overworked! Early flowering (April to early May) PCI responded with heavy seed sets and a short intense flowering period. This unseasonal heat was followed by cool rainy weather in late May into June, so late flowering PCI did not set as much seed, the reverse of the prior year, though the tenax x innominata plants again set many extra pods. I once again used all my mesh bags, and again cut off more than 100 extra flower spikes with more than 200 pods to reduce final seed volumes on those plants that did set seed.

PCI 'Mission Santa Cruz' is an old, tried and still true iris for gardens. Even this one failed to set any seed in 2014. 

Observant readers will note that I have not written about Nitrogen or N-P-K formulas. I did not add N or N-P-K in 2013 or 2014. A properly mineralized soil does not need much N. When healthy, the soil contains microorganisms that fix N and make it available to plants. There's another very important reason to not add N: Nitrogen fertilizers stimulate microbes to metabolize carbon compounds in the soil. My soil is acidic sand; I do not want to lose any carbon if I can find a way avoid it. Also, post World War II, the use of N fertilizers has wreaked havoc with historic soil carbon levels around the world. So I save money by not using standard N-P-K mixes, and instead spend it on custom blends.

If you read about historic versus current levels of minerals in vegetables, it's staggering to learn that mineral levels in food plants have dropped by 3-10X from those of a century ago. This bears directly on food health for all of us, as well as flowering and seed setting capacity for those plants we eat, not to mention those we grow for pleasure. It seems clear that improving minerals in soils leads to improved seed sets (see Jeff Lowenfel's Teaming with Minerals).

Other gardeners have commented on my use of inoculated wood chips. Most native plants in the West, especially in forest and woodland conditions, grow with soil fungi. In my garden,it is a measure of success to have mushrooms growing among ornamental plants. When I dig up iris plants, I see abundant feeder roots interacting with aged wood chips and soil fungi. In Fall 2013, chanterelle fungi were fruiting on a garden path next to several iris plants; this path is layered with several years worth of wood chips. Success!

In Winter 2015 I'm about to sample my soil again, and take the results to my local soil consultant. I can't wait to see how my PCI respond this spring. No guesses on the weather, though. In the past two years, I've seen both early and late flowering plants shut out by weather from successful seed sets. What I do know is that those PCI that manage to set seed are likely to set a lot of it!

When Pacifica Iris Pods Are Ripe

Kathleen Sayce

Mid to late summer is exciting:  it's harvest time for Pacifica Iris pods. Some species irises shed seed by early July in my garden, including Iris tenax and I. innominata. These species often grow at high elevations in the wild, flower in May or June, and have ripe seed by mid July to early August. They waste no time cranking out the next generation. Other species take more time to ripen seeds, nine weeks instead of five to six weeks, including I. douglasiana. Pods often go through a color change as they ripen, from green to gold or yellow. Even when not opened, a yellow pod has mature seeds inside, ready to collect. 

Just a few weeks ago, seed pods were green. 

Iris pods are opening all over the garden by late July, when the mesh bags come into use. Here, all pods in this cluster have opened, the tips are spread on the upper two, and the bottom one has valves spread to show the seeds inside.

Mesh bags or nylon stockings are good devices to use to contain seeds and ensure that a gardener's work in crossing specific parents isn’t lost at the seed collection step. Saving even a few seeds from a choice cross can be important in a hybridizing program. 

I cut the stems and collect the pods, still in their mesh bags, to dry before taking out the seeds. The stems can be tied together with a wire tie or string, hung in a dry shady place, out of the sun and away from direct heat––just as you would dry herbs or flowers, or put into paper bags in a warm dry spot. After a few days, any pods that can open, have done so, and the seeds are ready to clean and package. 

A basket of treasure:  Ripe pods in paper bags, ready to dry indoors. 

Normally the valves separate from the pods, and the seeds break off and scatter. Occasionally pods stay closed or only partially open. Either the tip will not separate, or the sutures along the edges do not open.  When this happens, I use a knife or razor blade in a holder to cut the tip off, or cut along a suture line, being very careful to keep my fingers intact, and to not cut into seeds. Then I gently peel out the seeds.

Seeds go into a bowl. Use a large bowl that you can swirl seeds around in. This lets you blow or toss seeds outside to separate seeds from chaff and pod fragments. I also use a sieve to shake out fine bits if the pods are dirty. I clean the seeds and remove all non-seed bits and pieces, insects, et cetera. Separating seeds from chaff is a very old process. Humans have been doing this for thousands of years. And it’s fun! 

After the seeds are clean, I put them in a clean bag (mesh or paper), to continue air drying. The label moves with them. I save seeds for seed exchanges, such as Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris, and Species Iris Group of North America.  

I learned the hard way to not put fresh seeds into glassine or plastic bags––they mold. The mold doesn’t kill the seeds, it’s just in the seed coats, but it looks terrible, and when it’s really bad, all the seeds are encased in a dense whitish mold into one solid lump. Ugh!  If there's too much mold I scrub the seeds with a plastic scrubby to clean them, then rinse and re-dry the seeds. 

Drying seeds, in a row of paper bags. This takes patience, and at least ten days!

Let the seeds dry thoroughly before packaging each seed lot. I’m not naturally a patient person, so this is hard. Wait ten days, at a minimum. More is better. Only when the seeds have dried indoors, in a clean mesh bag, and I have let the days slip past, do I then put the seeds into an envelope, label it, and set it aside to send to a seed exchange. I also share seeds out to gardening friends, and this is when those seeds are mailed. 

Labels need to include what, when, where, and any details of the plant or flower that are important. List:  Pod parent, pollen parent if known, the flower color on the pod parent if it’s a species or unregistered new flower, likewise any characteristics of the pollen parent that were important to note, or bee-pollinated, if open pollination was used. If you use crossing codes to track garden crosses, write down those codes too. This helps you and others track the parentage of your seeds. 

Another task is to take all the used mesh bags, wash them in warm soapy water, rinse, dry, and then freeze them for at least two weeks. Why freeze the bags? If any invertebrate eggs are in the bags, this will kill them. Washing, drying and freezing helps ensure that the bags are clean, and ready to use again next year.  

Do you grow PCIs, and do you save seeds to give to other gardeners?

Bagging Pods to Save Pacifica Iris Seeds

Kathleen Sayce

All irises have pods with three valves that open and spread when seeds are mature and pods are dry. Open pods toss seeds a few feet, shaking seeds out in the wind and opening a bit more from day to day. Iris pods often open at inconvenient times, usually on hot sunny days when I'm away from home. This was a frustrating reality for me when I started crossing plants and saving seeds, because I'm often hiking in mid summer, away in the hills when those pods pop open. 

I. douglasiana has green pods with three valves. Bag and save upright pods, not the sprawling stems. You will find the mature pods more easily later if they are upright.

I began collecting iris seed by designating small paper bags for each variety, adding pods to the bags day by day and week by week, cutting off the pods when the color started to change from green to brown. But inevitably, some slip past, and open on their own. Tracking seeds of choice hybrids was tough:  several times the pod opened and seeds slipped out, and were scattered in the garden in less than 24 hours. When you’ve hand pollinated the flowers after growing the parent plants, losing the seeds at ripe pod stage is tough. 

Iris douglasiana has the longest ripening period. Pods may take nine weeks to fully mature.

Iris douglasiana is the most widely grown Pacifica Iris, and its pods are ripe about nine weeks after flowering. Some species ripen a bit earlier, like Iris innominata, which has lovely yellow flowers; in five to six weeks the seeds are mature and ready to gather from this species. I learned this the hard way, going out weeks too late to bag what I thought were green pods and finding only the pod sections, brown, dry and open with the seeds long gone. 

Iris innominata can ripen seeds in five to six weeks. I know, because I lost all the seeds the first year this species flowered in my garden. I sauntered out in week six to put pod bags on the three green pods, only to find they were brown, open, and the seeds were scattered. 

There is a solution:  organza party bags, AKA seed pod bags. These days I check plants a few weeks after flowering, cut off flower stems on plants whose seeds I do not plan to save, and put mesh bags over the rest. For my original purchase, I got green bags, thinking green would blend in better over the summer. Not bad, but I now find bags all winter, even in spring, that were overlooked the prior summer! 

Mesh bag on green pod––unobtrusive, discrete, and could be easily overlooked in a few weeks when the seeds are ripe. 

When the pods are ripe, I cut the stems off, tie them together, label the bunch, and dry the pods still in the bags. If they open and shed seed, great, this saves me time prying open each pod. If they don't––and some late flowering I. douglasiana plants often do not open their pods––I slice each pod open along one side and pry out the seeds.  

If the seeds are going to a seed exchange, they go back into a clean mesh bag, labeled, and air dry for a couple of weeks. If I keep seeds to plant, I plant them immediately outside. 

The goal:  New seedlings. Note the styrofoam boxes, top layer of chicken grit, and mesh cover. The grit helps in heavy rain to keep the soil mix in place. The mesh wards off any number of animals and birds that think germinating Pacifica Iris seeds are tasty snacks. These seedlings will go out into the ground in early fall. 

I live in a summer dry, winter wet climate, which Pacifica Iris prefer. Seeds go into styrofoam boxes, in a well drained mix, covered with a thin layer of fine granite gravel (chicken scratch). A fine wire mesh cover goes over the top, to keep voles, chipmunks, jays, crows and other animals from eating germinating seeds. The seed boxes stay outside all winter, no matter the weather, and in the spring the next crop of Pacifica Iris seedlings emerge. 

I'd like to know what other iris growers think of using mesh bags, and what color of bag you recommend. I need to order more. I’m thinking red or orange for the next order. Or should I go wild and order mesh bags to match the pod parent flowers?