Re: HIST: Origin of Early Hybrids
- To: <iris-talk@onelist.com>
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] HIST: Origin of Early Hybrids
- From: J* a* C* W*
- Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 07:47:45 -0600
From: "Jeff and Carolyn Walters" <jcwalters@bridgernet.com>
> From: "Jan Clark"
>
> When in doubt I always reach for the dictionary. Mine defines hybridising
as
> producing, or causing to produce hybrids. Bees can do this, as well as
> humans, and selection doesn't enter the picture at this stage.
Hybridisation
> was happening in nature well before man made his first deliberate cross,
or
> first chose to propogate a natural hybrid.
Jan,
Granted that agents other than humans (insects, hummingbirds, the wind,
etc.) can be responsible for hybridization, it is clear from what Gerry
Snyder has written that Lemon, at least, was not a hybridizer, though he
was very successful as a grower and selector of new varieties of plants.
In terms of developing new iris cultivars I think we generally expect the
hybridizer (the person who made the cross) to do all the other things that
James Brooks mentioned, such as grow the plants from seed, make selections
among the seedlings, propagate selected seedlings, choose names and
register them with AIS, and introduce the named cultivars to commerce.
However, the key element of being a hybridizer is to hybridize; someone
else could (and has done) most or all of the other steps in the process,
but the hybridizer remains the person who made the cross. Perhaps, as John
Montgomery has suggested, and at least when we wish to be precise, the
whole package should be referred to as plant(iris) breeding.
Jeff Walters in northern Utah (USDA Zone 4/5, Sunset Zone 2)
jcwalters@bridgernet.com
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