Re: Purple-Based Foliage
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Purple-Based Foliage
- From: Z*@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 08:29:47 -0700 (MST)
In a message dated 97-01-08 20:47:31 EST, you write:
<< Yaaarrrgh! We are charging off on this before I mounted my soapbox and
declaimed. I have been temporarily embarrassed by my Internet provider and
didn't get a chance to plug one of my favorite subjects.
That purple based foliage confers a survival/reproductive advantage is
nearly a given. Years of anecdotal evidence is overwhelmingly in support of
this conclusion. >>
Dear Mike,
I don't know where this anecdotal evidence was gathered, but I state without
a hesitation, that it wasn't gathered among my TBs. I've been collecting PBF
TBs to evaluate for my variegated foliage breeding program and my biggest
problem to date has been their tendency to rot. I will conceed that most of
these iris came from a single hybridizer, but they all had excellent PBF so
this shouldn't affect their resistence to soft rot.
As in the case with winter hardiness, my guess is that the corolation is with
species iris used, not the PBF. I grow about a dozen aphylla species clones
and all seem rot resistent, but only half have PBF. In my garden it seems
that frost damage to the spring foliage is the leading cause of soft rot.
Since winter dormant iris start their new growth later than "stay green"
iris, I believe they are less prone to frost damage and soft rot.
However, my experiences may be unique since I've been lucky and haven't lost
many iris to either cold weather or soft rot. I do get my share of soft rot
because my front yard is watered with overhead sprinklers. When I get a bad
outbreak of soft rot, it seems to spread from plant to plant with almost
every cultivar affected. To date I haven't fround any single modern TB which
dosen't catch soft rot if it is surround by other iris with it. Some are
more likely to become infected, but I haven't found any rot immune TBs to use
in my breeding. Are there any with proven immunity?
I would enjoy the opportunity to reveiw any anecdotal data which exsists on
the superior rot resistence of PBF iris. Hopefully, it would help me
identify potential rot resistent breeding stock.
TTYL, Brad Kasperek ZEBRAIRIS@aol.com
