Planting seedlings

I found a large paper packet of seeds from 2010 BIS distribution. A complete mixture of things  but all looking dark and fine. Having had instruction on speeding up seedling growth a couple of weeks ago, I though I'd give it a go.

soaking seeds

Plastic bags purchased from IKEA - they're pretty red stripey bags, perlite from Homebase - not so pretty and jolly expensive, and a tray loaded with soaking seeds - 48 hours in the end.

teeny seeds 'relaxing' in the perlite

The idea is to soak the outer coat before easing it off - NOT as easy as it sounds, then pop the de-coated pale seeds into moist, not wet, perlite in a plastic bag, seal the bag and put that in the fridge for 6 weeks. Of course labelling is vital but as you can see mine smudged all over so fingers x'd it will be readable in 6 weeks.

hydrator bound bags of seeds

Follow that by planting them in compost and leaving on a warm windowsill from xmas to actual spring when they are ready to go outside and into the ground - in theory.

Basically it fools the seed into thinking it's had winter (vernalisation in the fridge time!) and that spring is  nice and warm/wet. Then there is a really LOOOOOONG summer (from planting to the end of real summer). Plants can apparently flower in 15-18 months with this method, which is great considering normal process is 2-3 years to flowering!



My hydrator is full of red stripey plastic bags full of vermiculite and tiny pale seeds.

British Iris Society Lecture series

The collection is now split into two locations, for safety and for management reasons. Everything is well settled in and growing on in the last of the summer so we took the opportunity to head to RHS Wisely and listen to a talk by Thomas Tamberg THE siberian Iris breeder, we gathered.

The talk series are in memory of Bryan Dodsworth  the noted Iris breeder. Bryan's son spoke at length about his fathers life and interests and it was quite some time before Irises were even mentioned! An accomplished man indeed. It was also interesting to hear that his collection is also split between The Old Rectory at East Bridgford and the Norfolk home of his son.

Inspired to grow Iris after a visit to Kew Gardens  he went on to pursue a passion for perfecting and improving upon the standard forms of the period. And very few made the Bryan Dodsworth grade and became registered varieties, though 12 of them won the prestigious Dykes medal!

Dr. Thomas Tamberg showed a breathtaking array of plants he had hybridised over many years and talked us through his methods for manipulating nature to produce plants that do what he wants. Thought this sounds glib one of his final pieces showed an Iris that in nature is  a diploid, and thus sterile, he had a laboratory breed from the diploid, adjust the genetic structure, to make it a triploid and so fertile and grew from it a visual clone Extraordinary!


I must admit to being quite bamboozled as the discussion deepened into the genetic break down of various species and how they would, or would not, be able to mix with one another, the number of DNA pairs seeming to be crucial a basic grounding in genetics would have been very useful and I am resolved to make extend my studies in the coming year.


There was discussion on how Colchizine, a derivative of the Colchicum species, can be used to make a variety fertile if it is inherently sterile. Though that said it sounded a very long and complicated process and one undertaken only by the most serious of hybridisers.


Interesting to hear how certain colours are rarer in certain species, light blues and yellows are not common in Siberica's apparently. 

Sitting in front of us was Olga Wells, we have heard so much about her and her interest in MTB breeding, so it was a relief to hear from her that she is not quite so scientific about her breeding program but more intuitive. So there is hope for us yet, and a great deal more to learn in the process.


Dr Tamberg left the group with the fascinating statement that there are many more Hybrid groupings to be discovered!