Re: HYB: Rot and Seedling Selection

Just a quick thought here.  Linda said "Only problem is that 'good' and
'bad' are relative - so what seems good in your growing conditions might
be really bad somewhere else."

How true!!

Here in hot day, cool night (but freezing in winter), dry central NM,
things are quite different than east of the Great Plains, or on the west
coast, and even somewhat different for growing from places as close and
similar as the lower elevations in Colorado and Utah.  Places that compare
rather closely (besides some of the southwest of North America) are in the
Near East, Asia, southern Africa, southern South America, etc.  Not
generally places that would compare well with (for example) Tennessee.
Anyway ..........

A good Iris example includes most anything with high percentage of Iris
variegata ancestry (as in many of the MTB's, and a number of the old
diploid cultivars).  Anyone from a cool/cold damp climate is going to call
these rot proof, survivors, good performers, etc.  However, while I can
grow them fairly well here, they have a tendency to melt in summer,
especially if they get wet crowns when it is hot (most of our little rain
comes as summer afternoon thunderstorms - can be devastating).  Or,
especially if they are transplanted during the "traditional" summer
transplant season.  They don't like the heat, and in the heat they are very
rot prone.  This applies to more modern cultivars as well, but it is often
not obvious without a lot of digging into pedigrees (and not always then)
which ones are going to do poorly.  Other cultivars that have a bad
reputation in damp or cool climates will often thrive here, so there is a
huge difference from location to location on what are "bad genes" and what
are "good genes".   It is quite likely that seedlings that do poorly for
Linda are exactly some of the ones I would be looking for to do well here!
Her climate isn't that much cooler than mine (if at all), but it certainly
is a lot wetter.

Dave

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