Re: HYB: First Crosses

Hi Matt
I admire your attempts to work with fragrance. I too love this aspect of some irises. The best perfumed iris I have is Forever Yours (plus rebloom) so even though the form isn't good I did a number of crosses from it and didn't get one perfumed one. However I have a wonderfully perfumed seedling from Autumn Thunder x Deja Blue, neither of which are strongly perfumed, although Deja Blue does a slight perfume. 
So this leave me confused about how to breed for perfume.
I will be releasing the seedling next year, prob as CAROL E. Not sure about it's rebloom performance as neither of it's parents rebloom on our acid soil. I have found no references as to breeding for perfume, so that might come down to trial and error, which will increase the seedling number. 

Colleen Modra
Adelaide Hills
South Australia

colleen@impressiveirises.com.au
www.impressiveirises.com.au
----- Original Message ----- From: "Matthew Booker" <apetala2@yahoo.com> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 6:54 AM
Subject: [iris] HYB: First Crosses
On another note, I am considering doing my first crosses next year. However, I'm a little bit overwhelmed with where I should start.
I understand the morphology of the flower well, so I know exactly where it to the pollen and such. That doesn't scare me.
I understand genetics pretty well. I'd better: I work in the genetics department of a major medical school. That doesn't scare me.
It's just the number of choices I have in deciding to cross what to what. That's what scares me. I need to be somewhat judicious in my decisions as I do not have huge amounts of space. I'd like some feedback as to what are the best things to consider when making these decisions.
I've already decided that I am going to concentrate on fragrance. I've always loved the smell of fragrant irises. I will also pay attention to the overall vigor and blooming consistency of the parents. I realize this is very climate-specific, but I can only feel confident about things that grow well for me.
Finally, does anyone know a good reference regarding iris genetics? There's been talk on this about the plicata gene and its alleles. Are there other iris genes that are well-characterized (or at least somewhat characterized)? 

-Matt Booker
Melrose, Massachusetts
Zone 6

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