Cross-Pollinated Iris Update

I was asked about how well my cross-pollinated Iris were doing. In 2011 I had finally successfully cross-pollinated a purple iris with a black iris, and vice versa. Tons of them germinated in January of 2012 during the mild winter, a lot more than I ever expected because I was told that it's very difficult to get them to germinate.


For a quick refresher on what the parents looked like; Purple on left, Black on right. I know it doesn't look anything black but that's the name that was told to me - probably because when the flowers are emerging, they appear very black before it opens.

The bed above contains "Purple Mom / Black Dad" iris. Very bad angle, I know. I found that the seedlings from this batch of seeds grew very big. A good number of them have started setting off new rhizomes.

This batch above, outlined with black border, is the "Black Mom / Purple Dad" batch. The seedlings from this batch are much smaller and I'm not sure they're being as prolific with rhizomes.

It sort of surprises me on how genetics play a part. The black iris is very quick to grow new rhizomes and bloom a lot. The purple iris seems to be very slow in wanting to grow new rhizomes and don't bloom as often. So it seems the fathers are influencing the seedlings very much...

There's no flowers yet. Last year I reached out to a guy who crossed irises and he warned me that if any pops up this spring, not to get attached to the flower as it meant that it focused on developing a bloom instead of forming new rhizomes. He did warn me that there will be blooms, though.

Anything's possible. Ever since the seedlings popped up last year, they've been growing since. The 2012/2013 winter was not cold enough to kill them down so they're still going ever since they popped up.

Winter's here and still lingering!

It's funny. We barely had winter during winter, and now winter is clinging after spring arrived. What's up with that?

03/26/13 - Koda by the birdbath

The greenhouse looks pretty sad, I know. We're expecting a week of really cold temperatures at night. It's quite odd. The lows are like 37, 38, 35? But when I wake up in the morning, everything's frosted over and water has frozen to ice. We didn't bother with putting the plastic on the greenhouse this winter because we barely had freezes - but it seems spring is a little odd this year. The heater has been turned on for a total of 5 times thus far? Also, the annoying thing is that a little bird moved in so I had to leave a little hole at the top for the bird to fly in and out. The tarps are temporary and I usually open it up for the sun before closing it up for the night when temps drop low again.

Also, before I forget - I believe I may have roses growing from a discarded bouquet. My father bought my mother a valentine's day bouquet and after she finished enjoying the flowers, she tossed them over the porch. I gathered the roses and stuck them in a neat little row in my bed. I totally forgot about them until it was pointed out to me that some of them were growing. Totally surprised me because I figured that after a few freezes since then, that the roses must be long gone. I'm trying to ignore the roses, except to water them here and there, because I don't want to invest any 'emotions' into them. I hate it when something shows a little sign of life and I get excited and then it keels over. It looks like three or four of them have shown signs of life.

I can not teach Koda to stay off the beds. It was fine at first because I figure once everything grows in, he won't be able to run up and down the beds. Then he resorted to digging holes in a couple of the beds so I had to slap up a bunch of fences to keep him off them. Ugh.

I miss when winter used to be winter. When winter came around, everything died down. Then when spring was coming, all you had to do was rake junk off the beds to make everything look fresh again. Instead it's just chilly with a frost once in a blue moon. The weeds are frost resistant (some with thorns!) and the amaryllis - the poor amaryllis - keep trying to grow. This spring, they've been stung down by the frost over and over. They're going to look pitiful once warm temperatures are on the way. I already lost one flower bud that was coming up. I just worry that some of my seed-grown bulbs might have a maiden bloom trying to come up and that the frost destroyed it.

Panteramaryllis, Hippeastrum pardinum

Panteramaryllis, Hippeastrum pardinum, a photo by Rottismix on Flickr.

Oh man, I would love to get my hands on this one! Can't seem to find anyone selling one...

If this is actually a hippeastrum, I wonder how difficult it would be to try to cross-pollinate and see if those spots would pass on.

Via Flickr:
Panteramaryllis, Hippeastrum pardinum

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013! :)

It's been a relatively mild winter again - for these parts. I know the north is suffering with a lot of snow from those ridiculously named winter storms. Here, though, not so much. Normally when temperatures are freezing, I fire up the heater and then the schlumbergera plants (Thanksgiving Cacti, Christmas Cactus) freaks out and aborts all their buds. This time around, their buds are blooming like crazy. To be honest, when we have a 'once in a blue moon' night where it drops below 32 degrees, I sort of... haven't been firing up the heater like I should. Then I always assume all the plants in the greenhouse have to be dead by now but they ride it out just fine. In November, there were two nights of 20's, back to back, and the plants were fine in there. I was so surprised.

12/18/12 - Schlumbergera blooming

I purchased a Hippeastrum Papilio bulb from 'East To Grow Bulbs' and I was given an Apple Blossom bulb from a Van Zyverden kit. The flowers finally opened after a month of waiting for the buds to open.

12/31/12 - NOID Red

The 'Apple Blossom' turns out to be something else, which is not unusual. When you buy bulbs from those kits, you never really know what you're going to get. I'm assuming this is Red Lion or something of that sort.

12/31/12 - NOID Red

I am really happy to see that the Papilio I ordered from ETGB is indeed Papilio. Very happy. Even though the blooms weren't big and fancy (which is understandable as it didn't have roots), the flowers are still cool to look at. When spring arrives, I'm going to get this bulb into a big pot and let it grow in there.

12/31/12 - Hippeastrum Papilio

12/31/12 - Hippeastrum Papilio - flash on.

12/31/12 - Hippeastrum Papilio

Adopting a Keeshond

So what have I been up to? Admittedly nothing garden-wise. Ever since our two year drought came to an end towards the end of May, the rain kept coming. And coming. And coming. Mosquitoes exploded to the point that it was nearly impossible to step outside for two seconds before getting attacked. It didn't help that the West Nile Virus reports were coming in and my state had its first death... I decided not to push it since nothing needed watering.

So what happened? The hyacinth bean vines exploded in all that rain and covered my amaryllis - which I think was probably a good thing. The heat, sun, and humidity killed the amaryllis in the other bed and they died down. The amaryllis shaded by the vines seem to be doing 'okay' from what I can see with their leaves poking out.

It's been about a week since we've had rain so now they're focusing on flowering which is what I was hoping to see pretty soon.

July 28, 2012 - Rainbow

We had pretty nasty storms passing through at the end of July. One storm was so bad that bolts were flashing everywhere and intense light was pouring in through our windows. Then as the storm was leaving, a rainbow appeared. It was a pretty cool sight!

A couple weeks ago, I discovered Keeshonden. Just a random internet search for types of spitz dogs and was stunned when I saw images of Keeshond dogs. They had such a striking resemblance to Bear (1995 - 2011) that I did a search and came across a Keeshond rescue place. It unfolded so fast that before I knew it, we had adopted a Keeshond from a local shelter. Meet Koda.

9/22/12 - Koda the Keeshond

9/23/12

9/23/12

Gourds & Fungicide

May 5, 2012 - Green Dragon Amaryllis displaying red spots

 Back in the beginning of May, I noticed that my Green Dragon wasn't looking as healthy. There were spots along the top of the leaf and the edging was starting to look 'burned'.

May 5, 2012 - Green Dragon Amaryllis

 I was stunned when I turned the leaf over and saw this entire mess under it. I posted the pictures on a forum and someone believed it to be red spider mites. The usual suggestion was to throw it away and get a new one. I'm not keen on that idea so I did a lot of searching for a home remedy. Something about how red spider mites thrive in dry conditions. I tried a soap spray, tobasco spray, milk spray, etc... but the spots were spreading as the days passed.

June 2, 2012 - "Candy Floss #2"

But then Beryl paid us a visit and dumped quite a bit of rain here. I was mortified to see that the red spots had spread like crazy in the rains we had. I hit the internet for another search and found out that there was a fungus that often attacks amaryllis/hippeastrum called stagonospora curtisii that thrive in wet conditions.

Again, the recommendation is to discard the bulb and get a new one but seeing as how I am not keen to the idea (Heh!), I decided to look up what the best fungicide was. One that was mentioned several times over in handbooks and guides was something called Cleary's 3336 and a more affordable solution was Thiomyl. I shelled out a good chunk of change and sprayed the stuff on my bed. I really dislike the idea of using fungicides but since this fungus can overwinter and return in the spring, I'm going to give this a try and see if I can't squash it out.

June 5, 2012 - Bicolor Gourd

 Speaking of Squash! I am getting a major kick out of this bicolor gourd that's growing on my fence. I never bother with anything from the squash family since there seems to be six million different bugs that attack each part of the plant but this plant seems to be thriving! I bet it's also because we seem to be, so far, having a cooler-than-average summer as well as regular rain here and there (enough so that we are no longer in a drought of any sort after two years!).

June 5, 2012 - Bicolor Gourds vine

To me, they look like dragon claws gripping an orb. Don't they look like that?

Asiatic Lily Leaves? Rooting time!

I came across this post - Propagating Asiatic Lilies From Leaves - and it got me to thinking...

May 19, 2012 - Asiatic Lilies that I grew from seeds.

The asiatic lily seeds that I harvested last year from a white lily that were cross-pollinated with who-knows-who, it was pretty exciting to see the seeds grow early this year. I wanted at least one to survive but to have a handful go beyond the cotyledon stage was pretty neat. I can't wait to see the flowers when the time comes (next year? two years?).

Then, coming across the site about doing it via leaves, I found myself really interested in the idea, enough so that I got my hands on rooting hormone so that I could give it a whirl. I had a lot of orange lilies so the idea of trying to make more wasn't interesting. However, there is one lily in the backyard that grows really tall and has these dark red/almost brown flowers. It's been in the backyard for years but only one ever comes up every year. After finding out that it was a gift from my uncle to my mother, I was more keen on the idea of stripping some leaves off and seeing if I have any luck in rooting any.

Eighteen leaves later, got myself a batch ready to go. I didn't use sand, as I didn't have any on hand, so I used the sterile growing medium. I dunked each leaf into the rooting hormone, tapped off the excess, and plopped them into each pot.

Now it's just a waiting game!

May Update!

Wow, I hadn't realized it was over a month since I last updated. I've been thinking a lot about Camp NaNoWriMo lately that I forgot to really update anything on my garden blog!

I selfed the irises but none of them took - which was fine with me. I've been feeling incredibly overwhelmed with trying to keep up with new seeds. I just can't help it. I know I have no space left but I have to plant any seeds I get. ;)

April 16, 2012 - Amaryllis grown from seed 2007

From my seed-grown batch in 2007, one flower came out as a double which surprised me as I do not own any double amaryllis.

April 16, 2012 - Amaryllis grown from seed 2007

April 16, 2012 - Amaryllis grown from seed 2007

Even the stigmas were melded together. The other flowers on this scape all turned out to be normal flowers, nothing out of the ordinary so I guess this one was meant to be two flowers but it just came out as a conjoined twin or something.

April 17, 2012 - "Candy Floss" selfed pod

April 17, 2012 - "Candy Floss" selfed pod

The pod matured and revealed brown seeds! I planted about fifteen seeds in a flower box and at the moment, one seedling came up.

April 20, 2012 - Red Amaryllis blooming

April 27, 2012 - Venus Fly Trap sending up two flowers

April 28, 2012 - Pink/White Amaryllis (Hippeastrum Vittatum, perhaps?)

April 28, 2012 - "Candy Floss" replacement bulb planted in bed.

April 28, 2012 - Stella D'oro

Still no idea where to put these flowers. I know they like to spread so I hesitate at the idea of putting them in my long bed.

April 28, 2012 - Hippeastrum Aulicum seedlings

April 28, 2012 - Hippeastrum Charisma seedlings

April 29, 2012 - Third Gen Red

These were seeds that came from a seed pod on my second generation Red *last* year. I had no intentions of planting the seeds but I did the water method for about three to four weeks, a couple grew (which I planted in the red pot) and I didn't want to throw away the rest so I stuck them in the clear pot in case there were any others that grew - and surprise! They all exploded. I don't think the water method works very well for me.

May 4, 2012 - relocated BM/PD Iris Seedlings to Bed

I decided to relocate my iris seedlings to the bed. I divided what space was left in half for both pots. As I divided the Black Mom/Purple Dad seeds and started relocating them to the bed, I found out that I needed MORE space. I moved the black dividers a bit, and even made a little section spanning off further into the bed. Then I found myself with a small strip of empty bed that would NOT be enough room for the other pot of seedlings. Phew. I have no idea what to do with them at the moment but I really want to get them out of the pot before they really start hurting each other.

May 10, 2012 - Replacement bulb is still NOT Candy Floss

So the replacement bulb I got from Edensblooms finally opened and it turned out to be another... whatever it is. Definitely not a Candy Floss. I did not e-mail Aaron because if all his Candy Floss looks like this, there's no reason to e-mail him again. They are definitely pretty flowers and I did buy the bulb on a sale so.. Oh well.

May 12, 2012 - Seed Pods of Amaryllis

I used green yarn to mark pods that had been pollinated by Green Dragon pollen and red yarn by the "Candy Floss" pollen. I watched as every single pod of the Green Dragon fathers fail. When I opened them, they were all white seeds that just never took.

I almost did not use the "Candy Floss" pollen. Because the mothers were red and the Candy Floss is pretty red, I don't expect any interesting results. However, deciding that I should do it anyways, just in case, I pollinated three red flowers. All three pods took and started swelling happily.

May 17, 2012 - Possible seed pod on the Pink/White (Vittatum?)

This is the scape of a pink/white. If you look hard, you can see the green yarn on a seed pod. I used Green Dragon as a father on it and it failed too. I also used Candy Floss on one of the flowers and that failed as well. This one pod that's swelling up, I have no idea who the father is. It could've been selfed or one of the NOID Reds was used on it. Even when I pollinated the flowers (In fact, I pollinated them many times over because it doesn't seem to realize I pollinated any of them), none of the pods started swelling up. They'd just shrivel up right away. For this pod to swell, I'm... surprised. This would be the second seed pod to take on these flowers since I've started pollinating them since 2007.

Quickie image

While showing off my biggest, fattest seed pod of the bunch, I made a quickie image for a friend to show her what the parents looked like and decided to plop it up here! I don't know how many seeds I'll plant from this bunch. Now that the amount of space I'm working with is nil, I can't keep doing my "throw 'em all in a flower box and whatever takes, takes!" method. I made that huge mistake with the red amaryllis seeds last year and I am way beyond stuffed with them. :O

Amaryllis Bed - Iris

My amaryllis bed - the old one with three clumps - are pushing out lots of scapes! I wasn't quite sure since the amaryllis insisted on growing as early as January and we kept having bits of frost here and there that kept stinging the leaves or making them die down.

Amaryllis Bed - Three Clumps

The clump on the left has been pushing out serious scapes. The middle clump are my seeds grown from 2007. The clump on the right are starting to push up some scapes.

Bloom from 2007 seeds

Same bloom as above.

I forced flash to show the yellow throats since the color was drowned out in the above picture.

Close-up of beard on Tall Bearded Iris

I have irises coming up! I don't know the name of the iris in the pictures. My mother says she purchased it many years ago as "Black Iris" but when it opens up, it takes on a very dark red color.

Tall Bearded Iris

Tall Bearded Iris

This could be why it's referred to as black iris. When bunched up, they're very black but when they open up, they take on that dark red color as the bloom above.

I'm thinking of self-pollinating some of the blooms. I was told that severe inbreeding will bring out recessive traits and it might be a fun experiment to try.