TB: HIST: quiz question - Rippling Waters

RIPPLING WATERS was a benchmark breeder coming out of the Hall/Fay/Moldovan
pink breeding progression.  Just to recap quickly that history,  David Hall
was seeking the pinkest irises he could develop and tried more than one
approach.  The one that led to what the future held was his effort to combine
rosy-blushed blends hoping for some improvement in the pink-blend type.  Using
Dolly Madison, Morocco Rose from Dr. Loomis, Prairie Sunset from the Sass
family and so on he began crossing these in various ways.  One benchmark
breeder in this set was a pink blend seedling # 39-62.  Its seedlings and some
others closely related gave the "break" that occured in 1942.  A number of
seedlings with "flamingo" pink color and tangerine beards appeared.  One of
the seedlings of Prairie Sunset was also selected out and named GOLDEN EAGLE,
of seminal importance, as this is the mother of PINK FORMAL, the foundation of
Tell Muhlestein's pink line.

Hall inbred the seedlings that appeared in 1942 and quickly began finding
improvements in his seedlings.  Meanwhile, Orville Fay, living not far away in
that Lake Michigan shore sequence of towns north of Chicago, drew upon Hall
pinks and produced PINK CAMEO.  Fay did a remarkable thing--he outcrossed the
Hall-line pinks to the best of the best parents of white/blue irises--SNOW
FLURRY, and his own seedling from Snow Flurry, NEW SNOW.  From inbreeding
these seedlings he produced LIPSTICK and ARCTIC FLAME, ruffled, white irises
with tangerine beards.  He also made an outcross to a diploid *pallida* type
then backcrossed to pinks.  Out of these various crosses he named several,
widely used breeders that were significant advances.  The culmination of this
work came in the Dykes Medal-winning RIPPLING WATERS, which not only had
lovely luminous color, but had both tangerine beard and lace.  The branching,
growability, bud count and just plain charm were extraordinary.

The number of registered descendants of RIPPLING WATERS is phenomenal.  It was
a delight to grow, exhibited well, and grew. It had both pod and pollen
fertility and was much used.  Few individual cv's have had as much impact on
future generations as this one had.

Does this answer your question, Linda?  You might enjoy finding Rippling
Waters and try growing it under your own conditions.  You may be surprised at
how well it may perform.  Then again, it might not.....?  You won't know until
you make your personal acquaintance of this significant historic.

Neil Mogensen   z 7 up the canyon and over the hill if you can tolerate the
traffic on I-40

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