This is the area that interests me the most in irising.  The art of manual pollination between your favorite flowers.  Why one becomes interested and crosses irises is a highly personal issue.  A young hybridizer , like myself ,  crosses irises simply because they are in awe of the whole magical process of creating their own exclusive seedlings.  Some people hybridize because they are trying to produce the next Dykes Medal winning iris but this is an unrealistic goal for somebody just starting out.  Choose a goal that you may like to achieve and breed exclusively to see how your visions compare to your new seedlings.   My first year goals were to simply complete the process from setting the pod to finally seeing the seedling bloom.  I didn't have any great expectations as to how the flower would look.

If you like black TB's and would like to see them  with  horns or flounces , then breed a dark iris like BLACK OUT with your favorite Space Age iris (e.g.. TRICK OR TREAT ) to see if you can pass of the genes that produce appendages into a hopefully promising Black SA seedling.  From the point of pollination on , the beauty and vigor of your seedlings is somewhat beyond your control , but  in the hands of the universe.  The young hybridizer is  going to have to wait two to three years from this point to see maiden bloom.  This hobby  is for the patient only and I'm sure that many who start the process simply lose interest because two years is a heck of a long time to finally view the fruits of your experimentation..

At first, I had absolutely no idea how one would go about  the pollination of irises and seed germination so I searched the internet for info to completely understand how this was done. I then read it over and over until I was absolutely sure I figured it out.

To make a long story short , follow these steps when you've chosen the irises you want to cross.

1) Wait until both parent irises are in bloom.  Remove a pollen antler from the pollen parent and examine it to verify that you do indeed have fluffy white or off white pollen grains.  Sometimes black irises produce purple pollen.

2) Scrape some of the pollen onto a wood toothpick or use a pocket knife or rub the antler directly on the stigmatic lip of the pod parent( this is the technique I use).  The stigmatic lip is located directly under the top portion of the Style arm.  The inner part of the lip glistens in the sun, this is where the pollen goes.  Once the pollen has been spread across the lip , it may be squeezed together with the style arm to insure that the pollen grains don't blow off with the wind. To increase your chances of the cross taking, apply pollen to the other two stigmatic lips as well.

3) Label the cross using the pod parent's name first MESMERIZER and the pollen parent second SUPERSTITION.  Your tagged label should read like this ( MESMERIZER X SUPERSTITION  )  I personally use very small green durable waterproof cardboard and green garbage bag twist tie.  I've had bad experiences with foolish neighbors trying to spray off the tags with a garden hose because they seemed offended by my attempts at hybridization or thought I was just plain weird.  Children will also march up to a stalk and yank the tag as hard as they can to remove it.  The smaller the better,  especially since I used to live on a tiny piece of land and was so close to other people.  Keep a record of the crosses that you make and refer to it .

4) If your attempts are successful , you'll notice that once the flower dies off, the ovary will stay in place on the stalk and begin to swell .  If you notice a white wrinkle crease at he base of the ovary , chances are that the pollination was not successful and it will snap off .  The pod will swell to the shape of a rugby ball and could contain up to a hundred seeds but 30 to 70 is the average for me.  I have found that my success rate is hovering at 50% for crosses that result in harvested seed..  Keep an eye on the pods , they will begin to yellow and can be harvested at the first sign of splitting , otherwise they will simply crack open and drop to the ground and be hard to locate afterwards.  I typically harvest a week or two before this happens.
 
 

Germination Your TB Crosses in the Fridge

 

Once your seeds have been harvested , allow them to dry out in paper open paper cups  for a few months.  I used to use sealed paper envelopes until we had an incredibly humid summer in which most of my seeds got moldy.   In Dec or Jan I soak them for about 8 hours and promptly rinse them with a 10% bleach solution to prevent mold from occurring.  After this, rinse all seeds with 20°C  (68F) or slightly warmer water and wrap each individual cross in a separate moistened labeled paper towel bundle or seal seeds in stocking.  Place seeds in their damp towels in the fridge for up to fourteen weeks or longer until you notice signs of germination, seeds can be removed every other week to be rinsed and returned to the fridge.  When you do this, you'll notice brown germination inhibitor has stained the paper towels brown, this is not mold, this is what you want to see.  After eight weeks , you can remove all seeds and inspect for germination but nothing usually has sprouted.  After 12 weeks, remove the seeds from the fridge and leave them at room temperature for a week or two.  This is when you'll see significant germination.

This process is an alternative to simply planting your seeds in the fall and allowing to mother nature to handle it for you.  The advantages of the fridge method are that you have much more control and a higher germination percentage.  You are also not exposing your fragile little seedlings to the sometimes fierce elements.  And finally , this method almost guarantees you bloom the following year depending on what zone you live in because your seedlings get a head start under Grolux fluorescent bulbs.  Oh yes , I forgot to mention that germination can be up to 90% for "some" crosses which is excellent compared to planting out in our fierce northern climate.  Ungerminated seeds will usually sprout the following year if you keep the pots that you planted them in.

Here in North of Montreal Quebec , winters are extremely long and I enjoy this germination procedure. Let me know if you have any comments or questions.
 

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