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Re: Re: hybridizing...

 

Dennis,
My money is on at least some fertility in your 12 year old pollen; IF the freezer is not a frost free.  I have used pollen that was frozen for 3 years and got pod set.  Once frozen, I don't think pollen degrades very fast, but if it freezes and thaws repeatedly (as it might in a frost free freezer), I think it has a limited life.  Be sure to let us know, and HAVE FUN!
Bill

ps I have been using plastic "key tags" that are sold to the automative industry to mark keys.  They are cheap and disposable and hold up to any weather.



From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>
To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 11:37 AM
Subject: [iris-species] Re: hybridizing...

 
So two weeks ago I started making Iris crosses.  Lots & lots of crosses.  LOTS.  I'm still going strong, and I wanted to post some ramblings about what I've been doing.....

Bearded season is almost over.  Just a few new blooms opening today and that's it.  No more.  But I want to save pollen!  So I dig into the freezer to find my old 35mm film canisters that I used for storing pollen 10+ yrs ago.  What do I find?  A dozen+ canisters marked 2000 and 2001.  LOL.  Well rather than destroy the pollen I decided to experiment and set it on some likely-to-be-compatible hosts.  I selected "Lindis"... an arilbred... and I applied it to 4 fresh flowers.  Anyone dare to predict what the results will be??  I can tell you the pollen was light & fluffy!  But it's also 12 yrs old.  This is going to be a fun experiment.  :-)

I ran out of tags!  I still use the tags I crafted back in 1999 from plastic venetian blinds with a hole puncher and a black sharpie marker.  I originally had about 200 tags.  I still have many of them but I've made so many crosses this year that I'm down to my last 4 tags!  Those will be used up quickly today.... then I don't know what I'm going to do.  I'll deal with that problem in about 30 minutes from now, I guess.

Iris flavescens is amazing!  It's soooooo floriferous.  None of my irises have been dug or divided in at least 3 years.  And many of them barely bloomed, to prove it.  But not Iris flavescens.  It put on the best show I've ever seen.  Consequently it featured heavily in this year's pollen daubing experiments.  It's probably diploid though, but I still crossed it with tetraploid beardless.  Flower-size-wise, it's similar to the beardless, so maybe the pollen tubule lengths will be more compatible... or something.

Okay I think that's enough ramblings for now.  Lunch time.  Then back outside.  I wonder how many ticks will try to get me today?  (At least the mosquitoes haven't started yet.)

Dennis in Cincinnati (wondering why 2001 was the last year I did any major hybridizing efforts?  cuz this is fun!)






On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 8:35 PM, Dennis Kramb <d*@badbear.com> wrote:
I did something today I haven't done in a while... made some Iris crosses!  I crossed Satan's Mistress onto a few of my own seedlings, as well as onto Iris flavescens.  And I crossed some of my TB seedlings with Iris tectorum alba (both ways).

What's everybody else crossing this season?  :-)

Dennis in Cincinnati




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