Re: older iris and rot (was crying, rot, and rebloom)

Linda Mann writes...

>?? I thought one of the reasons HIPS members love the older iris is because
>they are much more disease resistant.  I see there is another side to this
>story.  What gives?

The late 30s, 1940s and early 50s saw rapid progress in developing the
gamut of iris colors and patterns we enjoy today. However, there is a down
side to many of the iris of those eras. For example, if you had just
created the first true brown iris would you hold it off the market just
because of a tendency to rot? No way, and neither did Fred DeForest hold
back Tobacco Road. If you had achieved a true pink with a tangerine beard
would you trash it because it had ten generations of line breeding behind
it and was the most putrid grower imaginable? No way, and Dave Hall,
Orville Fay and Nate Rudolph did not hesitate to bring to market wonderful,
beautiful, but wretched-growing plants.

Other hybridizers were quick to seize on ground breaking plants and
incorporate them into their lines. Those who came after the trailblazers
were left with the problem of breeding some good plant habits into lines
which had achieved a sought after form or color but nothing else. In many
ways making a good perennial out of a 'break-through' is more difficult and
time consuming than the original development. And some lines are just plain
intractable. (Find, for example, a garden worthy orange!)

There are many firsts, innumerable break throughs and many milestones of
the iris development saga that a collector of Historic Iris lusts after and
attempts to grow. The key word here is 'attempts.'




Best regards,

Mike Lowe, mikelowe@tricities.net   Virginia, USA
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