Searching for the horticultural need of a flowering plant--when you don't have a name is a lap-full. This kind of gardening is not something I do much, so I am even less able to make good propagating choices than normal. Worse still, iris is looking like blueberries with a bewildering plethora of cultivars.
So after butting my head on cyberspace for much of this afternoon, here is where (and why) I think I am. Iris makes a pretty distinctive seed pod, species wide. This puppy looks to be iris. Specifically beardless iris. A possible name could be; French Purple.
My question is this: I live in SE-OH, what horticultural advice should I give to new growers whom I give seed to?
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ElizabethB
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Tom - as with all hybridized pants the plants grown from seed will not be true to the parent. If you have a lot and want to share better to divide and give away rhizomes.
https://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/pe ... rded-iris/
This is a pretty good link for bearded iris care and division.
I have never attempted to grow iris from seed but my Dad experimented with growing Amaryllis from seed. The parent plant was a very old hybrid that had been my Grandfather's favorite. I don't know the proper name but it was commonly called St. Joseph's Lilly. It was a bright red Amaryllis with a smaller bloom. Dad planted the seeds, one each, in 4" nursery pots in well drained soil. When they developed foliage he bumped them up to 1 gallon pots. The following spring he planted them in the ground. The plants had roots but had not yet developed bulbs. After 3 years they bloomed. Really amazing. The blooms were much larger than the parent plant and a variety of colors. Cream with red stripes, cream with pink stripes, pink with red stripes, pink with a red border, pink with cream stripes. Not a single red blossom.
I am sure you could do the same with Iris seeds. Planting seeds from hybrids is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get.
Good luck
https://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/pe ... rded-iris/
This is a pretty good link for bearded iris care and division.
I have never attempted to grow iris from seed but my Dad experimented with growing Amaryllis from seed. The parent plant was a very old hybrid that had been my Grandfather's favorite. I don't know the proper name but it was commonly called St. Joseph's Lilly. It was a bright red Amaryllis with a smaller bloom. Dad planted the seeds, one each, in 4" nursery pots in well drained soil. When they developed foliage he bumped them up to 1 gallon pots. The following spring he planted them in the ground. The plants had roots but had not yet developed bulbs. After 3 years they bloomed. Really amazing. The blooms were much larger than the parent plant and a variety of colors. Cream with red stripes, cream with pink stripes, pink with red stripes, pink with a red border, pink with cream stripes. Not a single red blossom.
I am sure you could do the same with Iris seeds. Planting seeds from hybrids is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get.
Good luck
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rainbowgardener
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I've never (deliberately) grown iris from seed, but I do sometimes let some of them make seed. So apparently some planted itself. The iris I have are some very deep purple ones and some lighter lavender ones. This year in the middle of that, up popped a very pretty bronzy pink one. I know I never planted it, so I figured it must be from seed, from my hybrid iris not breeding true.
As Elizabeth said, iris is very easy to divide. Mine spread rampantly, so I have to keep dividing them and spreading them around. At one point I put some of the extras from the front yard into the backyard. When the backyard ones multiplied themselves rapidly, I realized at that rate it wouldn't take long for my whole yard to be iris, if I kept spreading the extras around. So now I try to find some one to give them to or just compost the extra.
You asked about iris "stories." I only have one (besides the above). One time someone gave me some iris (anyone that has them probably has too many of them
) I wasn't sure where I was going to put them, so I just dropped them on the ground, while I figured it out. Of course I promptly forgot about them. Some time later, I discovered them in the same spot (terrible spot near the house foundation on the north side, bad soil, hardly any sun), having rooted themselves in and started growing! Some years later they are still there. It is too shady for them, so they don't bloom, but given that example of determination, I can't get myself to move them.
They are tougher plants than we give them credit for!
As Elizabeth said, iris is very easy to divide. Mine spread rampantly, so I have to keep dividing them and spreading them around. At one point I put some of the extras from the front yard into the backyard. When the backyard ones multiplied themselves rapidly, I realized at that rate it wouldn't take long for my whole yard to be iris, if I kept spreading the extras around. So now I try to find some one to give them to or just compost the extra.
You asked about iris "stories." I only have one (besides the above). One time someone gave me some iris (anyone that has them probably has too many of them
) I wasn't sure where I was going to put them, so I just dropped them on the ground, while I figured it out. Of course I promptly forgot about them. Some time later, I discovered them in the same spot (terrible spot near the house foundation on the north side, bad soil, hardly any sun), having rooted themselves in and started growing! Some years later they are still there. It is too shady for them, so they don't bloom, but given that example of determination, I can't get myself to move them. They are tougher plants than we give them credit for!
The ultimate destination of this seed is going to be a seed give-away. I'm a lot less sure these are hybrids, due to them being beardless iris, vs bearded.
If they re-segregate mores the better. I did include a warning on the packets and at the give-away site.
Nothing would make me or the prospective growers more happy than something new under their sun.
If they re-segregate mores the better. I did include a warning on the packets and at the give-away site.
Nothing would make me or the prospective growers more happy than something new under their sun.
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ElizabethB
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