RE: HYB:Urban Legends
- Subject: RE: [iris-talk]HYB:Urban Legends
- From: J* R*
- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 11:43:33 -0800
> 1) Wide crosses usually produce dogs! I interpreted this to
> mean that something like red x white would be a bad choice to cross.
> 2) Selfs produced from plicata & self crosses are usually hafty . . .
> have
> serious haft marks.
>
> Although I've seen evidence that indicates the above may be true, I'm not
> sure of the truth of these statements.
>
> Questions & Answers are both appreciated. Anyone care to join in?
>
>
> Betty Wilkerson from BG KY USA Zone 6
>
Wide crosses can be very interesting, maybe unpredictable but not
necessarily dogs. Remember, only a tiny percentage of seedlings are good
enough to keep anyway. Wide crosses may have a better chance of being
unique and of removing a specific flaw from a breeding line. Of course some
colors don't mix well, and depending on suppression or expression of
pigments lines with very different colors may produce "muddy" colors.
Plicatas crossed with non-plicatas very often result in prominent "haft
marks" or perhaps a more proper term would be "spray patterns"? Although I
have sometimes used the term haft marks for this, some iris do have a
network of (usually) bronze-colored lines around the shoulders, and perhaps
this is what should actually be called a haft marking. I do not like the
spray patterns at all (exceept on Jewel Baby); most iris-lovers agree, but
opinions do differ. My first year of growing iris, I was already attempting
crosses and in my ignorance crossed Queen in Calico with Honky Tonk Blues.
Lots of hideous hafty spray patterns and ugly things. Only two were not
instant trash, and they weren't any good. The worst was Queen in Calico x
Twist of Fate. The seedlings that bloomed all had pencil thin stems with
two drooping, extremely tailored flowers, ugly spray patterns, dull
butterscotch brown over muddy dark purple.
More recently, Filibuster x Gnu was an awful cross: a full line of dull
black cherry bitones with minimal ruffles and open standards. I can't
understand where those genes came from, but all the ones that bloomed were
similar, and I made sure I won't be seeing the rest.
John Reeds
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