Posted on Oct 26, 2021 3:03 PMHave you ever wondered what happens if you cross a tall bearded iris with an intermediate? Back in 2015 I crossed Devil May Care with Silver Streak hoping to create a purple broken pattern iris.
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My chances of getting a broken pattern are low because Devil May Care is not a plicata but it has a great grandparent which is. I have 7 seedlings from this cross and only 2 of them bloomed this year. One was trouble free, the other was nothing but trouble.
Devil May Care 4 was doing well until the top part of the bloom stalk broke off. I put it in a jar of water but it died of rot and I didn't see it bloom. About a week later I noticed there was another bud still on the plant in the ground. This bud produced a chimera with 3 falls and one standard. The bloom is about the same size as Neon Blue, another intermediate.
Nearly 2 weeks later another bloom emerged. This one had 4 falls. I didn't spray anything to stop the bugs because I have heard that chemicals can affect the blooms and this seedling had enough problems already.
About 10 days after that I finally got a bloom with 3 standards and 3 falls but the bugs go to it before the bud opened.
I am hoping it will bloom normally next year without any chimeras. I don't know if these problems are a consequence of crossing a tall iris with an intermediate.
Would you call this iris a broken pattern? There are streaks sometimes.
Devil May Care 5 was the trouble free seedling. I think this bloom is the size of an intermediate too. It has rather long falls like its pod parent.
