Re: question

Mark Cook wrote:
> >     You have to beat the Bee.  Once a bee or any other pollinating
> >creature visits the flower, it has already been "hybridized."  So, you 
> have to pollinate it as it opens.  

and Jan Clark added:> 
> So, if you have pollenated the flower and a bee comes along with pollen 
> after you (unless you have covered the flower) how do you know which 
> pollen fertilised the flower? You can't just assume it was the first 
> lot. 
> I have pollenated flowers on the next day after opening, but we don't 
> seem to have a problem with bees here.

I have always heard that only a bumblebee is capable of successfully
carrying out pollination of a TB flower. Bumblebees (and all other stinging
Hymenoptera) seem to be particularly abundant around here (unlike
Australia, apparently? - but then, I believe we are less well supplied with
venomous snakes). I leave the stalks on the clumps I plan to dig the same
year (they make convenient handles) and I get very few bee pods. As a
general rule, I don't think that it is necessary to assume that an TB
flower that is not hand pollinated as soon as it opens will almost
certainly be insected pollinated, either soon or ever. In respone to Jan's
question, I also have always heard that the quantity of pollen placed on
the stigmatic lip in hand pollination is so massive compared to what a bee
would deposit that there is little probability of contamination of crosses
from this source, which is why it is not the practice to cover such
flowers, or remove the falls, after making the cross. To repeat, these
comments apply to TBs, and not necessarily to other types of iris.

Jeff Walters in northern Utah  (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
cwalters@digitalpla.net
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index