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WARNING: Gardening Thread

About five years ago, I cross bred a bunch of the iris from my Idaho garden. I carefully labeled all the pods, and filed them away in my gardening cabinet with the other seeds. Then I ignored them.

This summer, I looked online to see how to get them to grow, (figuring it was probably too late) - it said to wrap them in wet paper towels, and stick them in the fridge to get them to germinate. I waited, and waited, and checked and checked, and nothing for months as the paper towels turned all sorts of lovely colors. eeeeeewwwwww.

I went to throw them away today, and YIKES! It WORKED! Below is a picture of a few of the seeds (a bit out of focus) there seems to be a thickened part in each root, I'm wondering if that's going to be the rhizome?

Anyway, I've also posted a photo of a small watercolor I did of one of those iris from my garden. I love iris, although unfortunately they don't seem to last quite as long here as they did where I used to live.





Jodi

Jodi, your talent is really impressive. Not only can you paint like O'Keefe, you're also hybridizing irises?

Can I have your autograph?

That's a wonderful watercolor of the iris. I have a bunch of that type out front. I photographed them extensively one particularly good year for the purpose of a similar painting, to accompany my bird of paradise and magnolia paintings in my "O'Keefe period". The irises I have are very beautiful, but they mean more to me because they were formerly the pride and joy of a wonderful elderly woman who used to live next door. Fury tended to them meticulously (she was the woman who called me "Mike" for a good ten years, so that even now I find myself answering to that name). When Fury retired to New Mexico, the new owner immediately ripped them all out of the ground. When I saw it and protested, she gave them all to me and helped me plant them, establishing a good new friendship and Fury's irises moved next door where they're appreciated. They never last more than 3 or 4 weeks, but they're spectacular while they're out.

Jody, you are a true wonder. What a marvelous talent you have.

You are just the best there is.

Tommie

the watercolor is absolutely gorgeous...i love the colors.

wow jodi!

Really lovely, Jodi!

Congratulations Jodi ...... That's terrific ...... I wish I possessed these skills.

(The top picture looks a bit like mutant sperm to me though - but hey, I haven't seen anything pop up in my front yard in years )

Ok, wait. The watercolor was a bonus. (but thanks for the kind words anyway, and Rick, I'd love to see MORE of your paintings) Anyway, we're supposed to be talking about the SEEDS.

What now? I'm thinking about potting them into pots, but then planting the pots into the ground (that way, I won't lose them) - but should I do a mix of peat moss and sand? potting soil? regular soil? and how deep? I mean, iris are just supposed to go right at ground level. But those little roots look so delicate. I don't want them to freeze their little thingies off. What do you guys think?

Jodi

My 30-volume gardening encyclopedia says only "sandy soil, cold frame" for seedlings. (Yes, I have a 30-volume gardening encyclopedia. My grandparents were all spectacular gardeners. I thought some gene might kick in at midlife. It hasn't.)

Jodi, stick each of the sprouts in a small peat pot (those little 1.5" things) filled with half potting soil and half perlite. DO NOT OVERWATER, as doing so will just encourage mold. When the seedlings sprout their third set of leaves and are about three inches tall, plop the whole thing, peat pot and all, into a somewhat larger plastic pot (no bigger than 5") with more potting soil. The peat pot will eventually disintegrate into the soil in the larger pot.

DO NOT let these seedlings get too wet or too warm. Both will kill them in a fraction of the time it took for you to get them to germinate. If I were you, I'd put them inside your little garden shed, just next to the window, so that they get some sunlight, but stay COOL. You don't want these little puppies to go into overdrive in November! If you get a cold snap or two that might send the temperature inside the shed below freezing for more than an hour or so, consider moving them into the garage overnight. The idea here is to promote additional root (and in the case of irises--rhizome) production without the encouragement of excessive leaf formation.

Keep your little iris seedlings moderately watered and cool all through the winter. You really shouldn't expect much out of them during the winter. Not only will the daylight hours be too short to promote much top growth, the cool temperatures will help keep the seedlings' growth below ground.

If Spring ever arrives, you should be able to transplant your (by now about 8") seedlings into the garden. They will, hopefully, be almost completely pot-bound by then. When transplanting, make sure that you score the root ball to encourage formation of additional feeding roots.

I know, there's a fine line between overwatering and underwatering for these little guys. The idea is to keep the soil slightly moist, but never, EVER damp or waterlogged. Some people like to water seedlings with a mister to provide better control of the water application. Another consideration might be to place the peat pots in a tray of gravel where you keep the gravel watered to just below the top surface level of the gravel (did that make sense?) so that there is a slight capillary or wicking action between the wet gravel and the peat pot.

So, jodi, are they still alive, or will you be adding them to tonight's stir-fry?

Eeeeeeewwwwww.



(going out to buy some more potting medium - I will try a few pots in the garage, and a few in pots in the ground just to see what happens. Thanks for all the information, by the way! I just wish I didn't have to wait three years or so for them to bloom to see if I got any crosses, or if they all just reverted back to the wild blue color...

Jodi