Re: HYB: carried away makign crosses

In a message dated 4/16/2003 5:08:26 PM Central Standard Time, 
crook1945@yahoo.com writes:

> In 
> various types of plants the ones that don`t look
> promising in there juvenile years turn out to be the
> best ones after 4 or 5 years of growing . Would this
> occur in Irises as well ?
> 

My personal experience says, "Yes!" In my seedling beds, irises often look 
different during the second year of bloom.  Usually, the REAL spectacular 
ones look worse! It's not wise to brag about your new seedlings until you've 
seen them bloom a second season! They can really embarrass you! 

But, some of the bad ones start looking good! First year bloom is often 
uncharacteristic of the established bloom.  

For this reason alone, I don't recommend trashing seedlings at the end of the 
first year's bloom.  I've even heard people say that they discard any 
seedling that doesn't bloom the first year.  Again, I disagree with this 
practice.  

Betty W in South-central KY zone 6

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index