Re: Space Agers -Gaudy and/or Showy?

At 04:59 AM 4/25/96 MDT, you wrote:
>     I think that Carolyn started a threat off by asking Ian about American
>hybridized irises and if they were gaudy and showy.  Tom Tadfor Little then
went
>on to list some of his favorite iris forms and writes:
>
>     Now I think that I'll "stir the pot" and bring up a discussion concerning
>one of the irises that Tom mentioned - Sky Hooks.  Do you think that the
>hybridizing for appendages such as the horns, spoons, flounces, forks, and etc.
>found on the ends of beards of Space Age irises is gaudy, or showy?  Also is
>this a trait that hybridizers should work with, or leave be?  Now we'll
separate
>the purists from the nouveau form admirers and I'm sure that the responses to
>this topic will certainly fill up the mail boxes of those who have trekked to
>Sacramento. I've heard that Space Agers caused battle lines to be drawn when
>they were first introduced and I'm curious to see what type of reaction they're

>BTW:    Are there any Aril or Aril-bred Space Agers?

>Bill Smoot, grinning and waiting for the fireworks! <grin>
>
>73210.1725@compuserve.com  
>

Never could resist a "stirred pot" myself...However there must be other
suckers like me who indiscriminately love ALL the forms of Iris with a wild
abandon, both modern and jazzy and traditional.  Some of the appendages may
even be a natural form of evolution intended to attract or exclude for that
matter certain pollinating insects or who knows...maybe even the very active
species of buzzing Iris breeders!  Seriously, there is the possibility that
breeding for certain features merely accelerates what happens in nature.

I am only a purist in having a strong desire to see the natural species and
their forms preserved, especially wildland populations.  

SA's have a special kind of whimsy and humor to them.  Gardening is supposed
to combine art and science and on the art end of it each gardener should
make their own "rules".  SA's from an artistic standpoint have an element of
fun and surprise to them and I love to put them in unexpected places.

I will never forget our daughter's reaction to SKY HOOKS the first year it
bloomed:

"Hey, look at this..something HAPPENED to one of our Iris!"






 






Louise H. Parsons  <parsont@peak.org>
Corvallis, OR  USA
USDA zone 7 , Emerald NARGS, AIS, SIGNA, SPCNI, transplanted Oregrowian
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