Re: How does one decide

Thanks for your tips Paul.

I guess we have a few extra luxuries, in here South Aus irises 
transplant quite well in spring, especially one year old rhizomes. Also 
we will have access to the new property for a month before settlement, 
it's currently vacant, plus access to our old stock afterwards.

I appreciate your tips for assessing unbloomed seedlings.

Colleen



Paul Archer wrote:
> I might be able to help as I just did this myself this past Spring.  I had the
> added crimp that obviously Bearded Iris don't like to be moved in the Spring
> and I had very limited time to do it.  I moved from North Carolina to Indiana
> (a thirteen hour drive) and will never do it again to the extent I did it this
> last time.
>
> I had quite a bit less plant material as yourself.  I decided to get rid of
> cultivars that just didn't grow very well in NC or when I had them in IN.
> That wasn't many.  I also considered those that even though as many times as I
> had tried had never set any seed as pod or pollen parent.  That's a hard one
> to do if it is one you just love.  If that is the case and its and excellent
> grower and other great attributes then keep it.
>
> What was hard was culling the unbloomed seedlings.  As we in the US remember
> we had that hard freeze Easter Weekend a couple of years back.  That set the
> seedling evaluation progress back as some were on maiden bloom.  But it tested
> them for frost tolerance and back then I had made observations and notations
> and cullings even though they didn't bloom.  I still had two crosses totalling
> about 150 plants and all beautiful clumps and only a few had bloomed after
> being in the ground three Springs.  The rest of the plants I had decided to
> take had been dug and these were left.  So with these unbloomed seedlings, I
> selected for foliage characteristics and rhizome pattern.  Did the foliage
> stand up strait, color (blue-green), blade width, ect.?  When I dug each on up
> did the rhizome pattern develop uniformly and space each new plant properly?
> I ended up keeping one bloomed plant and one unbloomed plant of each cross
> that met these criteria.  After all that digging I honestly didn't care much
> anymore.   That much digging will give you perspective, guaranteed!  Don't
> forget I still had yet to replant all of them!
>
> Since I had to move them in the Spring I also decided to take three rhizomes
> of each plant and make sure that they had increases forming as well.  This was
> to make sure that I didn't lose any particular variety because it rotted.
> Some rot did occur as the bloom stalk aborted.  Emergency rescue measures were
> taken on some where at least two rhizomes had been affected.  I only ended up
> loosing one plant through the whole ordeal and it's replaceable.
>
> I also had help from my Mother and the ENCIS who helped dig and label.  Any
> surplus rhizomes left over they were free to take for themselves or club
> sales.  4 days of digging and four days of planting.  Thanks again to the club
> and those who helped!  All I can say is make sure it stays organized, have a
> plan and get help, as much as you can.
>
>
> Paul Archer
> Indianapolis, IN  Zone 5
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>   
>> From: Impressive Irises <colleen@impressiveirises.com.au>
>> Sent: Aug 8, 2009 6:50 PM
>> To: dlrobin@yahoogroups.com, "iris@hort.net" <iris@hort.net>
>> Subject: [iris] How does one decide
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Les and I are going to be moving in a few months, and either winding up
>> or selling the business here by the end of the financial year, primarily
>> because of health reasons. We're buying a property of one acre in Mt
>> Pleasant about 20 min from here, a small town between the Adel Hills and
>> the Barossa Valley, and leasing the propagation areas here until next
>> May. So now I have to choose a sample of everything I want to take with me.
>> From those who have down scaled before, how do you decide what to take
>> with you? We currently have about 1250 bearded iris, 250 beardless iris,
>> and 550 daylilies, plus a large breeding program, mainly bearded iris
>> but also some good daylilies and Pacific Coast iris, and of course
>> there's the several years' worth of seedlings that are yet to bloom..
>> Culling out about third of each is easy, but then where does one go?????
>> The parents one wants to use, old favourites, new stock that you haven't
>> seen much of, things that you think might do much better in the new
>> environment, concentrate on keeping seedlings???????
>> We bought a lot of new stock in the last year or two, before we realised
>> how serious Les' health could be and my knees got a lot worse,
>> fortunately we've time to see most of it bloom before having to finally
>> decide, but it's the culling the numbers by more than half is what I'm
>> having problems contemplating.
>>
>> Any thoughts from someone who has done it before would be appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>> --
>> Colleen Modra
>> ph/fax 08 8389 4439
>> Impressive Irises
>> PO Box 169
>> Charleston SA 5244
>>
>> www.impressiveirises.com.au
>>
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