Re: MTB vs. BB
- Subject: Re: [iris] MTB vs. BB
- From: "Neil A Mogensen" n*@charter.net
- Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 21:25:50 -0400
- List-archive: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris/> (Web Archive)
To Dave's cluster of too-large-to-be-MTB one might add NO-WE-TA and its
offspring PINK RUFFLES. EROS was a diploid TB of TB stature but had a small
flower with I. pallida character. THAIS is probably similar. What about
SHEKINAH? I'm not sure I ever saw it, but I have the impression it was a
diploid and not overly tall. It appears in a number of pedigrees I believe.
I would enjoy seeing a classification home created for these orphans. They
have enormous garden value, often as not, being hardy, more than usually
disease resistant, and able to produce showy clumps for considerably more than
the usual three-year limit of the more modern, larger tets. The breeding
potential of the group is by no means exhausted, especially with the current
availability of diploid clones and species that were not included in the
original western European hybrid swarms. Who knows what the Russian and
Asiatic diploids might add to the pool?
Another factor is marketability. Without a comfortable classification home
for the type a commercial grower would be wasting his or her time adding them
into a TB or BB mix. A marketing strategy with a new classification to go
with it might be quite successful, and also encourage hybridizers to work with
the type. It sounds like a rather fun project to me.
Sigh. If I just had *another* fifty gardening years at my disposal....
Neil Mogensen z 7, western NC
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