HYB - TB: "Throwbacks" (Re: CULT/HYB: Harvest of Memories)

> Linda Mann wrote:
> > 
> > A couple of hybridizers have told me that crosses with Schreiner irises
> > often produce a high percentage of 'throw-backs'.  

and Art Bern asks:
> 
> How true is this? I've been told that most offspring are 'dogs', no
> matter where the parents came from. What little hybridizing that I've
> done, verifies the dog theory and most are throwaways. Last year two
> parents produced 30 seedlings or so, with only one that I would keep.
> Alot were so-so if you know what I mean but not really keepers.

I believe what Art says is true of the typical experience of most people
who hybridize iris. With so many different characteristics in play most
seedlings are going to have faults in one or more of them, such as color,
form. branching, bud count and so on. However, I think that Linda as
referring to something else, which is that when at least one of the parents
in a cross is a Schreiner intro, all or nearly all of the seedlings tend to
have flowers with a form that is reminiscent of an earlier stage of
development of TB iris than that of the parents - hence the term
"throwbacks". Her comment made me go back and review my own hybridizing
records, and though I have not made a large number of crosses with
Schreiner iris, from my experience it seems that Linda's statement is
basically true, and that far from seeing an "advance" in form in the
seedlings from such crosses, or even form that resembles that of the
parents, almost without exception the form has been about twenty years
*behind* that of the parents.

If this observation can be confirmed by the experience of others, it could
be quite useful not only to those who wish to achieve further "advances" in
TB form, but also to those who may be interested in hybridizing iris with a
"Retro" look.

Jeff Walters in northern Utah  (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
cwalters@digitalpla.net
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