The Bees did the job for you.

iris gal, thank you. My husband thought that might be the case, but it wasn't mentioned in anything we had read. This is our second year of raising irises, so we have a lot to learn. Now I am excited to see what we get. We are watching the pods closely to be sure we don't lose the seeds. Thanks again, Sterling

Or, they may be 'balloon' pods that are full of air and no seeds or tiny specs of dried up unfertilized seeds.

I have not heard of a good explanation as to why this happens.

Most spontaneous pods are 'balloon' pods.

Walter Moores

thank you for the info on balloon pods.
Sterling

There are iris that produce such ballon pods in a local cememtary here in Ct. I looked inside one and there was nothing in there. The house accross the street has the same irises and they do the same thing.

Other than this family, I have not seen another iris do this. It would indeed be interesting to know why some iris do this while almost all the rest do nothing but reproduce the A-sexual way by division.

Bees do actually do it however. I read of a breeder that was very anoid to discover a forigner in his garden. It was a black one amoung his prize, "named", irises.

He was selling it on ebay as I recall.

Thank you for telling me about this. We did have a lot of large bumble bees near the irises while they were in bloom. I am going out today to put net over the pods to protect them from critters, and hopefully catch some seeds.

I'm down here in So Florida trying Louisiana irises for the first time. Those that bloomed have seed pods. I'm waiting for them to ripen. Now I guess my question is when can I plant them and how long does it take to grow and is there something special I'm suppose to do, and will it be the same as the mother plant???????

Loretta

Loretta,
Louisianas are a little different, you'll want to pick them when they turn yellow and plant them soon.
Don't wait until they dry out and crack open.
Louisianas self pollinate very easily because the pollen stem is very close to the lip.
Most likely they will resemble the mother plant and you should also get some variation. None will be exactly the same as the mother plant even though some may look identical.
I just plant the seeds in mud about an inch deep, some sprout fairly quick and some may take two years, the soil has to be kept moist like a bog or river bank.
Some people scratch the cork covering, I've used sandpaper for this, others remove the cork covering off the seeds, I just plant as is.
Walter has had good success germinating Louisianas.
In moist ideal conditions, you may get first year bloom, but I'd expect to wait two years to see bloom.

Thanks Randy - I'll do that tomorrow.

Loretta

The only thing I do differently from Randy is that I plant the seeds in pots and out of the direct sunlight. Many come up six to eight weeks after planting.

In my bog I have occasionally missed removing a pod and when I am adding more pine straw in the late fall, I find a cluster of little seedlings.

Walter Moores