Re: Are they really all REALLY different? Well, no!

Okay, coming at this from a different point of view (I don't breed
iris, but I do breed dogs).

I agree, there are a lot of very similar looking iris out there, but
is that really an issue? As far as hybridizing them goes I mean.

In breeding dogs the idea is to breed to a written standard. You are
basically trying to get all of them to look alike in other words.
Being alike isn't a bad thing... they each offer something different
to the gene pool as breeders are working from various bloodlines.

So... are iris that different? So you have 100 iris that have pale
blue standards and dark blue falls and they all have orange beards.
Aren't different breeders using different crosses to achieve these
plants? Don't they have varied genetic backgrounds which each might
pull something different forward that the breeder can use to achieve
his or her goal? I can see some of the "duplicate" looking plants
might have limited value to the person who just wants some lovely
plants to bloom the their garden (much like the person who just wants
a good-looking, healthy pet and doesn't care if I've imported breeding
stock from the U.K. or Australia), but isn't the gentic diversity
important to the future of iris? Or am I muissing something?

Debby





On 8/16/07, Gesine <kathges@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> But reading old AIS bulletins you'll see periodic
> "we're introducing too many too-similar cultivars"
> discussions.  Personally, I think this is more
> true *now* when the iris field has gotten much
> bigger than in the historic past.
>
-- 
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small
minds discuss people. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

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