I'm a "no seed left behind" planter and grow out whatever I get unless it is a poison hazard for our livestock. (I donate those to Bakemom's WS newbie program). I'd absolutely grow out every iris seed that came my way just so I could see what might pop up. They'd look great next to the 93 cannas, 2400 echinacea, and 40,000 other seeds to be sown this year. But yes, a dozen iris seeds is a nice starter supply. Seed companies sell canna seeds 5 to a pack and plenty of other seeds at 10 or 15 to a pack. I had a few things this year that I wanted to share but were in short supply (mainly some heirloom beans). Some of my trades ended up with 8 or a dozen bean seeds of a particular type just so that I could share them even if I didn't have many at hand. I did always try include a couple of ample surprise packs of some other seeds just so the trade still felt abundant. It's important to me to feel like the other trader gets enough in the bubble mailer to have something to spread out on their desk and fuss happily over for a while. I've got certain plants in the garden that are big seed producers, easy to harvest, and just kind of fun to grow (white marigolds and 4 o'clocks) so I try to save every seed off of them just to have them on hand to sweeten trades. I think they help balance out small quantity/short supply seeds or those exactly 25 seed envelopes from plants that have hard to harvest seed. Lynda

Iris season is definitely over for most of the irises I know about. I'm assuming the irises you're talking about didn't even form buds. If that is the case, you definitely have to wait until next year. There are two possible reasons I can think of for not blooming. Irises hardly ever bloom for me the year after I divide them. They seem to need that year to establish themselves. So your irises might have needed time to settle in. Also, irises that are planted too deeply often don't bloom. The rhizome should be barely below the surface of the soil. You should also consider whether some of them are not getting enough sun. If the non-bloomers are right next to bloomers, that probably isn't the case.

I have been raising hybrid iris from seed since I was a wee tad... The offspring are usually healthy plants, though they will often have specific faults, which a breeder wants to cull. Also we run out of space if we keep the ones which are 'nice' but not an improvement on existing cultivars. That's the source of the 1 in 5000 type of odds that you will read about. If you are just out to have fun I think you will find at least 1 or 2 keepers from each pod of iris seeds that you grow. The golden rule is to use the best parents you have available as it is rare to get progeny which are superior to their parents. Some fun things to try - self an Iris (cross with same) - this form of extreme in-breeding will uncover good and bad recessive traits - true freaks like flatties etc. Cross two similar Iris from the same hybridizer - often a single breeders lines are related and the results of line crossing are usually better than "wide" crosses of unrelated cv. Chad

Hi Catherine, There is no such Japanese iris as Pink Lady. It's a long story, but Japanese irises are being flooded in the market by Dutch growers, who buy the cast off irises from Japan, and give them names such as Pink Lady, Geisha Girl, Imperial Magic, etc. There is a central iris registry in the Society For Japanese irises, and you can look up for free any named Japanese iris, and find out all about it. Pink lady is not, and never has been a registered iris, and any nurseries selling it should be advised of that. You may have gotten a pretty Japanese iris, but it's not a registered one, and plese don't pass it along with the name Pink Lady. Just enjoy it and consider it a seedling, name UK. The color won't change on them, they will always stay the same. For true to name Japanese irises, go with a Japanese iris grower, Ensata Gardens, Aitkens, Snowpeak, etc. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Polly @ Siberian Iris Gardens