Re: HYB: First Crosses

<The> reference for iris genetics is still The World of Iris. It's outdated, but will get you started. Another great reference (which I still haven't purchased...) is the American Iris Society's Judge's Handbook. Both are available from the storefront on the AIS website (see link below). 


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)?
There is also an overwhelming amount of discussion about genetics of various traits in the archives of this list (see link below), starting with a punnett (spelling?) square for several traits related to color & pattern posted by Tom Little way back in the first year of this forum.
As far as I've been able to find out, very little work has been done (or reported?) on genetics of other traits (stalk height, bloom size, fragrance).
Advice to beginners is usually to cross two irises with traits that you like, hope for babies better than both parents. For example, if you grow an iris with fragrance that you <love>, but some traits you don't like, try to cross it with something that would counter those traits. 


It's just the number of choices I have in deciding to cross what to what. ....I'd like some feedback as to what are the best things to consider when making these decisions.
-Matt Booker
Melrose, Massachusetts
Zone 6
I think the biggest first step in selecting what to cross is learning to really <look> at the potential parents, train your eye to observe <all> the traits of the plant, not just what hits you in the heart when you first fall in love with it. [talk about waxing poetic!]
To me, I. pallida, diploid species, is still the standard for potent sweet fragrance. If you are in love with the modern award winners, that's not a good choice, but Tom Silvers will vouch for the fun of working with species irises.
There are several different fragrances of irises, ranging from sweet to rootbeer, skunk to cat pee, the latter generally described as musky. Fragrance of cultivars is consistently noted in some of the checklists, but not in all. I think. I don't know if anybody has tried to trace pedigrees of fragrant irises - because fragrance hasn't been reported consistently, it might be hard to figure out anything. The online checklist doesn't include the older irises, many of which are very fragrant, but you might unearth some patterns of heredity among the newer ones.
Not sure that's answering your question - it is overwhelming to think about, but you may find that there aren't as many actual choices once you get in the garden during bloom season. Some don't bloom, or aren't fertile because of the season, some crosses seem to have potential until you are staring at the two of them in bloom and realize that, in <your> garden, they share all the traits you don't like. 

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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