Donald, I know absolutely nothing about breeding for ABs. Keeping that in mind--could you cross the darkest seedling back to DESERT FURY, in an attempt to reinforce the color? Or would that mess up other goals?
Betty W.
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Eaves <donald@eastland.net>
To: iris-photos <iris-photos@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 1, 2011 12:34 pm
Subject: [iris-photos] AB: goal failure - AT LAST X DESERT FURY
Pollen daubing per se often is just seeing what happens. Might be just as
well that's mostly what I do. On the post last month of the 'parents and
kids', from the time I saw that red seedling I'd wanted to use AT LAST with
a red parent. I don't grow many I considered red enough, but DESERT FURY
is. When the opportunity came I got the pod. Going for red. Well, I was
as bad as any medieval king wanting a male heir and getting a daughter
instead. These results weren't what I was after. I dismissed them out of
hand. It was several days and a number of blooms before I could rationally
evaluate them for what they were instead of what they weren't. Good thing
for them they were aggressive increasers that put on lots of bloom stalks to
give me time. A single stalk would probably have consigned them to the
compost pile with no further consideration. Only #1 came close and the
standards were more purple than red. Maybe KALIFA'S ROBE will give me an
opportunity to try again. Don't think I'll try this cross again.
Donald Eaves
d*@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA