First, decide what color you are going to 
strive for and then choose the best parents 
possible. Should you be working for blue, select 
the very bluest you have as parents and if they 
should have the other qualities you want such 
as form, substance, texture and size of flower, 
so much the better, for these things as well as 
stalk and branching should certainly not be 
overlooked. After you pass the novice or begin- 
ners stage you will become acquainted with 
many more varieties than you probably have 
at present. Then you will be able to check the 
ancestry of the iris you plan to use as ‘‘Pa- 
rents’? and know whether the particular traits 
you desire in the seedlings are dominant enough 
in the parent to give you a high percentage of 
the type you are striving for or possibly the 
“ONE” you most want. 
Now for the technique of crossing. You will 
find that each flower has six petals. The three 
that extend out and downward are the Falls. 
And the three that are held upright are known 
as Standards. Peeping out 
from between each standard 
you will find a heavy, curved, 
near petal called the style or 
style arm. These usually have 
flaring, frilled ‘“‘V” shaped tips 
that face out and up. Just 
where they spread back you 
will find a small lip or separ- 
ation on the underside. This 
is the Stigma and it is on this 
Stigma that the pollen must 
be applied. By taking the tip 
of the Style in your fingers 
and gently curving it back you 
will cause the lip or Stigma to 
open wide making application 
of the pollen very easy. On a 
freshly opened flower you will 
find the surface of the Stigma 
to be porous and moist looking 
and as long as it stays in this 
condition you may be reason- 
ably sure of a “take” when 
you make your cross. As the 
flower ages the moistness of 
the Stigma gives way to a 
hard, satiny look and its re- 
ceptiveness to pollen is then 2: 
poor. Now as to the pollen. = 
This will be found on the un- 
derside of the style as the 
stamen curves right with the 
style and is held very snugly 
against it with the pollen sac 
at its tip. The pollen sac may 
best be removed by inserting 
tweezers into the throat open- 
ing between the standards and 
gently removing the whole 
stamen or part of it. 
In pollenizing a flower, you 
may do so successfully by ap- 
plying the pollen to either one 
or all of the stigmas. I have 
had an equal amount of suc- 
cess either way. However, my records do 
show that in crosses made using but one stigma, 
$2 per cent of the pods have had a much small- 
er amount of seed than the pods set by using 
all three stigmas. Therefore in working with 
difficult parents or in making special crosses 
I always apply pollen to all three. 
Pollen may be kept for as long as three weeks 
and still be usuable. There are a number of 
Ways in which you can store it. Small bottles, 
capsules, boxes and folded papers or envelopes 
are all satisfactory. For my own use I prefer 
envelopes though. I do not use many of these 
as I do try to use fresh pollen when it is 
possible. 
After making the cross, be sure and tag it 
properly. I use small Dennison marking tags, 
as I find it easy to get the string around the 
stem of the flower and draw the tag through. 
On the tag I write only the name of the pollen 
parent as I have found that writing the whole 
4] 
eross will some times lead to confusion if part 
of it should fade out and since the pou parent 
is always either numbered or named I will know 
that the one name on the tag is the pollen 
parent then. 
In recording the cross in your notebook I 
would like to suggest that you alwavs record it 
“Pod” parent, crossed, ‘Pollen’ parent. I be- 
lieve this is usually done in most all hybridizing 
lines though I know of no rule against doing it 
the other way and know one or two hybridizers 
who do use the other way. But since the great 
majority use the pod pollen method of record- 
ing, the reverse method can be very confusing 
to your own records unless you remember to 
switch them around. 
ONCO AND RHGALIA HYBRID CROSSING 
In giving what information I can on crossing 
the various hybrids I will first take up the 
subject of pollen. I have found that the pollen 
very 
of most of these hybrids is difficult to 
ESCAPADE 
keep and that under most methods 
| of storing, 
it very soon becomes completely dry and sterile. 
After trying various ways, some of which would 
completely dry it and others which would 
make it too soggy I discovered that by placing 
only the pollen sacs themselves in the bottom 
of short wide mouthed jars, leaving them open 
and placing them on the floor in a cool corner 
of the basement they kept indefinitely in perfect 
condition. This method has enabled me to have 
plenty of valuable pollen from these early 
hybrids for use on much later tall bearded 
varieties. 
In pollenating and securing good takes on 
the various hybrids such as Wm. Mohr, etc., I 
had very little luck either with very fresh 
flowers or hand opened buds until I began to 
pollenate by pinching the sides of the style 
slightly together, thus opening the lip or stigma 
completely, then applying the pollen as heavy 
and as far back as possible on the stigma. 
