Re: Forcing bearded irises for early bloom

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I don't think that technique would work on bearded irises in cold climates. In the sun the mini greenhouse would warm the plant enough to bring it into growth, but is too small to remain warm at night, so the new leaves would freeze and die. It might work in spring to speed up growth once nighttime lows are higher.

Here's some advice about forcing bearded irises:Âhttps://www.oldhousegardens.com/ForcingArchives.aspx

They've presumably already met their cold dormancy requirements outside so digging a piece ought to work. Since all you want is pollen, it's not a disaster if the plant doesn't survive past flowering.

I assume you want pollen from your particular clone? Otherwise I'm pretty sure I've got frozen variegata pollen.

Sean Z

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 11:29 AM, Dennis Kramb d*@badbear.com [iris-species] <i*@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

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Instead of digging & disturbing the clump, could you build a temporary greenhouse around it? You can do a google image search to get ideas for different kinds of "mini greenhouse" or whatever. Here are some pics that came up for me. If you're lucky you could probably scrounge up the materials for free, rather than buying something. I don't know if they make clear garbage bags, but that would probably be ideal.

The extra warmth should bring your target clump of irises into bloom much earlier... at least a few days... probably a few weeks. I guess it depends how soon you could construct it.

Dennis in Cincinnati

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 11:03 AM, thomas silvers t*@yahoo.com [iris-species] <i*@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Does anyone have experience with bringing bearded iris species indoors (Iris variegata in particular) to persuade them to bloom earlier? I'd like to use pollen (from the variegata clone I have) on some really early species and didn't think ahead to freeze any last season.
I'm thinking of just digging a part of the clump with as much soil as possible and potting it up to keep under lights in the basement.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts, Tom


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Posted by: thomas silvers <t*@yahoo.com>
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