Re: OT:CHAT-RE:BEN HAGER QUOTE

Christie,

I'm excited just hearing of your success!  Especially with My Pretty 
Valentine as pod parent.  That's one I've ordered for next season's 
planting, in the hope that it will be a good foundation plant for my 
goal of breeding pink TBs with other-than-tangerine beards.  Its 
picture, at least, looks like a true pink beard.  Is that what you've 
found?  And in your seedling?

Also, I'd love to hear what your husband added to the soil to make it 
such a perfect medium for irises.  My mix has been topsoil, composted 
chicken manure, and a little lime.  But if there are other components 
I should add or substitute for the above, I'd love to hear of it.  
It's ridiculous how all my discretionary funds (such as they are) are 
getting spent on irises, but that's my priority right now.  And 
having spent so much on the cultivars, I surely want to make the most 
of them!

Patricia Brooks
patriciabrooks@coupeville.net




--- In iris-talk@egroups.com, "Christie Pierson" <kenl12@a...> wrote:
> Fred, 
> Thanks for the quote, I hope my iris passion lasts that long and 
that I'm around to enjoy it!!My husband and I have just started 
hybridizing . ( 3 years) We haven't set too many goals as yet , our 
first goal was to just get a cross to take. We had only one the first 
year ,My Pretty Valentine x Let's Boogie. Last year we had our first 
seedling bloom. OH THE EXCITEMENT!!!! We even took pictures of the 
stalk with no bloom ! It turned out to be a pretty,and vigorous 
pink . We were happy because we were told that" most of your new 
seedlings would be dogs"
> From our experience of just getting ONE pod ,we thought that 
hybridizing was difficult, so the following year we crossed everthing 
in sight! Everything (almost) took! We planted all of the seeds and 
now have well over 300 seedlings took care for. One of the seedlings 
already had a maiden bloom in the first year in the fall of 2000! 
(The reverse plicata ,solid white falls ,talked about here before)
> We have great increase as my husband , Ken , added so many good 
ingredients to the soil. Some of our seedlings are alot bigger than 2 
year clumps!
> We have never looked forward to a bloom season more. We are 
especially excited about seeing our cross of Sweet Ballerina x 
Birthday Greetings as well as Diabolique x Lark Ascending(We were 
talking about crossing with whites a little while ago, now we will 
see).
> I know 300 seedlings doesn't sound like alot to the hybridizers , 
but we are already out of soil for dividing these babies!! UH OH !!
> We will probably develope some hybridizing goals in time, but for 
now we are enjoying the PURE excitement if seeing our" babies " for 
the first time!
> Christie Pierson , Julian Ca. San Diego County
> Zone 7/8 alot colder than San Diego with snow still on the ground 
>  
>  
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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