SEEDS: germination

There's been talk on Iris-talk for some days now about germination beginning on the seeds so I went and pulled all of the protective cover (loosly laying oak leaves mostly) off my third or fourth year SIGNA *aphylla* seed pots.
 
A few had germinated (and survived) last year.  This year, however, there are a number of new ones up.  My labels are so faded most can't be read, but they are in order in the row of pots, so I can work both directions from the one I know I can read and re-mark them.
 
I did see a few germinations in the TB crosses also in second year pots.  The new seeds planted last fall are in the shade of the garden shed.  There's no germination there at all yet.  I suppose I need to move the pots to a warmer location now that we are beyond the nasties from the weather, I assume.
 
I should be glad there are relatively few--I don't have space for a lot of new seedlings until I can cull those that didn't get to bloom last year due to frost or wind-plus-hail breaking off the emerging stems, 
 
I'm really looking forward to seeing some *I. caucasia* seedlings, which I assume to be forms of *siberica*, and some seedlings from what I think was Flight of Butterflies, --seed collected from open pollenated, un-tended plantings at the arboretum.  The foliage on these suggest quite short, dwarfed plants, as were the parent plants,
 
I'm hoping to be able to make some crosses among some of the bearded diploid species this year, also.  I had hoped to do so last year, and the few attempts I made between rain storms failed.  The current year is starting out with an entirely different character.  I'm thinking of making rather a lot of crosses, space or no space.
 
This is going to be a rather fun spring, I think.
 
Neil Mogensen   z 7 western NC

Yahoo! Groups Links
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index