HYB: haft marks

A terrible time of year to be asking this while all the pollen daubers
are busy, but I'll ask anyway.

I've read several comments over the years about haft markings (all those
busy stripes around the beard, not just the shoulders) being hard to
breed out.

Does that mean all seedlings from two hafty parent will be hafty or will
they occasionally produce a 'clean' seedling?  I keep trying various
bicolor cultivars (amoenas, neglectas, white and yellow bicolors),
looking for something that will grow well enough in the 'vale of
despair' to produce lots of pod or pollen and it seems that nearly all
the strongly pigmented ones that grow well are pretty hafty.

ROMANTIC EVENING is good here, but not thrilled about life in the vale,
& stingy with stalks/blooms.  I have a bunch of new ones I'm trying this
year, but most aren't open yet, so don't know how clean they are.

I have a couple of unbelievably robust, well branched, showy, bright,
clump forming (etc etc) hafty seedlings that I keep wondering if it's
worth trying to 'clean up'.  I would dearly love to have some cleaner
versions with wider petals.

I've heard that CRAZY FOR YOU, which is nothing but haft marks on the
falls, produces both clean selfs and stripes, so if it makes pollen
before my hafty kids are done, I may experiment.

Anybody have experience in crossing 'hafties' they have time to share?

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
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