Let’s start with what hybridizing is: Hybridizing is the
affirmative act of collecting pollen from the male iris and implanting it in
the female iris. It involves collecting pollen and implanting it in the same
iris too, or “selfing”.  No smart ass remarks here either.  If a bee, the wind,
or another insect performs this function, it’s not the same.

Ok, how do I pick the irises that I want to hybridize or “cross”?  That’s the big question that we’ll try to focus on. Remember again, this is a long-term hobby.  If you cross something in spring, you won’t see the “flower” for at least 2 years.
You still won’t have a clue as to whether or not you’ve really got
something for another 1 – 2 years after that.

Let’s start the process with a couple of really simple
goals. Frist, we’d like interesting flowers and maybe structure. Second, they
have to be durable and survive in your location. This may seem like a big jump
but it’s not.  It’s the bare minimum.  To grow something that’s not particularly
beautiful isn’t very interesting and hardly worth the time.  Additionally, to grow something that’s a knock out but kicks the bucket after the first flower, well, I’ve done plenty
of that and it’s not a fun experience.

Now you’re ready to start. You need stock material.  You want
to work with the widest array of different looking irises that grow well in
your area.  That’s because the wider the array of traits you pick to start your hybridizing, the wider the array of offspring, and the more likely you’ll get something “interesting”.  If you cross one lavender Iris douglasiana with another lavender Iris douglasiana you most likely will get a bunch of lavender Iris douglasiana’s.  Hard to
believe I used to do this and wondered why I got the result I did.  My friend, Richard Richards, straightened me out on this and didn’t laugh or call me names for being so dense.

So, now we’re going to get this wide selection of irises to cross – great!  Let’s look at the second criteria, picking irises that grow well in your area.  You can do this by asking your friends and/or going to public gardens and seeing which irises are growing well. You can also tap the power of the web. There are tons of iris sites as well as our on SPCNI Facebook page where people will be happy to help you out.  Remember, it does no good to go to all the trouble of crossing irises only to watch them kick the bucket in summer. If you follow this plan, you should have some pretty good “stuff” by the 4^th year or so.

The next step is letting some of your friends plant a few in
their gardens. If your irises are doing well in your friends’ gardens after a
year or so, chances are you’ve got something that should be registered.  I did the same thing, only it took me a couple more years. I wish I’d had this road map, but we finally have a few things to register too.  Some of these are shown below.

If you do this for a few years, after the 2^nd year, it’s a pretty cool thing to have new irises that no one has ever seen, and you’ve created something each spring.
Not exactly like seeing the birth of a child, but exciting none the less.

Note, we’ve stayed away from the “how to grow” information.  There’s plenty of this on
the web and it’s also a different subject. We also didn’t cover how to hybridize for branching, ruffles, a blue rim, color, veining, snow, heat, etc.  If
you’re going to get into this sort of thing, you need a doctor’s note.

Reblooming Irises in a planting with California Natives

Planting

First your irises should be planted in a location the gets full sun for at least 3/4 of the day. Second, dig your holes at least 1-1/2’ apart. You don’t want to crowd them. Dig the hole to a depth such that your irses sit even to slightly above the surrounding soil. You want the water draining away from the center so as to avoid rotting. I’d recommend mixing one tbs of bone meal in the bottom of the hole or 1 tsb of 14-14-14 time release fertilizer. Third, take your iris out of the pot, place it in the hole, don’t break the rootball, and cover it in. Now give it a good soaking.

Care

You need or should water about weekly. This keeps the iris from going dormant so it will rebloom. If you forget to water for a week or so it’s likely not the end of the world. The rebloomers should be fertilized with 1 tbs of time release fertilizer in January and July. This keeps the flowers coming and big. After the flower spikes are done blooming you can cut the spent flower spikes down to the base and trim off any dead leaves.

What else? Dividing the irises. This should be done about every 3 or 4 years or so. The best time of year for this is roughly July through September. This keeps the flowers coming and lots of big ones. This is easy to do and there’s plenty of instructions on the web as to how to do it but you can probably just about figure it out on your own by looking at the situation. You’ll see a natural place to divide your iris.

That’s it or mostly it. If you have any questions about your irises please contact us.

For more information, please click here to visit the Reblooming Iris Society.

Louisiana Irises- Louisiana’s
are native primarily to Louisiana – surprise!
Also, they are found in the other Gulf States.  They
grow in nature at the edges of swamps (wetlands) and are sometimesreferred to as bog  iris. However, they grow exceptionally well in heavy adobe soil with full sun.  They should be planted deep and low, unlike the other irises. Watering once per week works
just fine. They should also get a TBS of time- release fertilizer two times per
year.

The Louisiana are beardless iris and have the greatest color range of
any of the irises.  They range from multicolor and pattern to true blues, dark purples, yellows, and reds. The flower stems range from 1 1/2’ to  4’
tall.  The flowers are 5” across +/-. They are spring bloomers and are easy to grow and hard to kill!