RE: Re: Questionable seedling

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Thank you, Linda, for your thoughtful assessment of my 35-27 A seedling.  Its parents are Carnival Song (plicata) X Fancy Woman (luminata).  It is what is called a fancy plicata.  I believe that its red-brown color is probably recessive.  It has one nice sibling, 35-27 B, a pink and yellow luminata that I think is very pretty.  It is a much better grower and this year even had a couple of nice stalks with seven buds.  Usually there are only five.  I crossed them both in ’06 by New Leaf with strange results.  The weak 35-27 A produced about two dozen strong seedlings, most of which bloomed this spring.  The strong 35-27 B seeds had very poor germination.  Of those which did germinate, only two have survived and neither bloomed this year.

The 35-27 A X New Leaf seedlings are all luninatas, but I didn’t find anything outstanding among them.  Most were purple like Fancy Woman.  One had an interesting orange base color on the falls.  None were either good enough or bad enough to protect or destroy, so overcrowded as they are, they will get to bloom again next spring.  If I still can’t find anything outstanding, they will all be gone.  I am afraid that they may be lacking substance, and that is one fault I will not put up with.  New Leaf may lack substance too.  The 35-27 siblings both have good substance.

My goal is vigorous, unique, pink or pink blend irises, preferably rebloomers.  35-25 A produced two blossoms in the middle of their fans in June.  That is not an acceptable rebloom.  I don’t know if it could be classed as rebloom at all.  All it did was destroy two rhizomes that might otherwise have multiplied.

The most vigorous and beautiful pink blend seedling that I have grown so far will probably be destroyed because of poor substance.  It is fairly good in the hot, dry Phoenix area, but I saw it in Austin and our son has sent me pictures from Vancouver, WA, and it looked terrible.  Apparently rain makes it melt.  I have crossed it with two reblooming irises with very strong substance.  Seeds are going into the refrigerator today.  In two more years, I may have something interesting.  Hope keeps us hybridizers going!

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: iris-photos@yahoogroups.com [mailto:iris-photos@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Linda Mann
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 2:47 AM
To: iris-photos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iris-photos] Re: Questionable seedling

 

Francelle - how about this - look at it in terms of your hybridizing
goals. Are all (most, some) of the sibs really great at meeting
criteria for your breeding program? In other words, would another
generation get back to 'the right stuff' and is it fertile?

Another consideration - do you have enough of a feel for the genetics of
the cross to know if this color/pattern involves a combination of a
bunch of recessives? In other words, is it unique looking because it
combines a bunch of recessives in a way that would have vanishingly
small probability of happening again? (i.e., you won the recessive lottery!)