HYB - TB: Reg. 7 Irisarian Reprints #10

> A series of articles reprinted from the Region 7 IRISARIAN with myself as
> Editor in 1990-91.  [Gary Sides--Jan. 1998:  Posted to Iris-L]
> 
HYBRIDIZING SMALL TALK
BILL MARYOTT      San Jose, CA
	    
Iris hybridizing has been a big part of my life for over 16 years.  My
first crosses were actually made on the first two irises I grew.  I crossed
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, the old purple intermediate onto CAYENNE CAPERS, the
lovely yellow and brown reblooming plicata.  The cross, of course didn't
take.  I had always admired flowers and believed that flower breeders must
be very intelligent and work for big companies.  I had heard about sterile
ajar mixtures, greenhouses and complex polyploiding.  I had no idea that
most of the new irises made in America came from home gardens by amateur
breeders.
	    
The next big surprise was the nice folks I met who were involved in iris
breeding.  Keith Keppel, Joe Ghio, Larry Gaulter, Ben Hagar, Bernice Roe,
Joe Gatty, and so many others, all willing to share ideas, pollen,
seedlings and knowledge.
	    
Hybridizing seems to me a little like gambling for those who hate to lose
money.  You can never be sure you'll get anything, but you always dream of
the "big one".  Every time you make a cross and see the seedlings, you
learn more.  There's no end to the possibilities and you get to revisit all
your past work each spring when your irises bloom.
	    
Iris hybridizing is also a mixture of science and art.  A scientifically
advanced iris may have no appeal to the gardener or a very beautiful iris
may lack basic characteristics to make it usable in the garden.  The best
hybridizers seem to me to be those who mix a scientific, organized approach
to breeding with a good sense of balance, color, and taste.

Another view one might consider is iris hybridizing as designing and
manufacturing consumer products, the ultimate in marketing.  After all,
isn't a new iris cultivar really just another consumer novelty?  Can't one
use good marketing practices in planning the breeding direction, naming the
cultivar, pricing, promotions, etc?  Isn't the best iris really the one
that is most loved by the consumer?  Ben Hager and I have discussed this at
length.  He considers his breeding the pursuit of excellence.  His focus is
not on whether any one wants to buy the end product, but rather is it an
advancement towards some mental vision of "perfection".  This view of
hybridizing differs significantly from the idea of making consumer
products.
	   
I happen to believe there is no true vision of perfection.  The best iris
today meets those characteristics the majority of the public desires in a
flower.  Twenty years ago, the public was not particularly interested in
heavy ruffling, remontancy, and giant size.  An iris such as GIANT ROSE was
considered a novelty.  Rebloomers such as GIBSON GIRL were also a novelty. 
Ruffling was present, but not singled out with as much importance as today.
	    
The characteristics present in the iris of the future, perhaps 50 years
from today will depend on what the consumers really want.  If they want
bright, big, heavily ruffled flowers that bloom throughout the year in mild
climates, then this will be the predominate focus of the breeders.  If they
want winter hardy irises with delicate features and subtle pastel colors,
this will be the breeding direction.
	    
The plant itself is very pliable genetically.  It can be dotted, streaked,
veined, ruffled, laced, big, small, heavily branched and made adaptable to
almost any environment.  The buying public will really dictate what
direction the hybridizers should take.  Let me give an example of my own
work:  I found several years ago that orange and black were two of the most
popular colors in iris, probably because they are unusual and very
noticeable.  Because of this demand, I devoted much of my own breeding
towards these colors.  First I created FURNACE CREEK, then HINDENBURG, and
later OKTOBERFEST in the orange line.  In blacks, I started breeding with
WALTZING WIDOW as I felt it was truly one of the best, (although not too
well known) blacks available.  My work on black has led from WITCHES
SABBATH, to HOUDINI, and more recently to MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE.
	    
I now give several talks each year to Iris Societies around the country.  I
do my best to encourage others to give hybridizing a try.  Perhaps many
people are not aware of the shortage of good dedicated iris hybridizers.  I
believe we have this shortage for several reasons:  first, many of the
hybridizers are older and cutting back or discontinuing their breeding;
second, many people today do not have the necessary space or time to devote
to a hobby such as this which requires lots of patience, hard work, and
very little financial return.

The mechanics of hybridizing are really easy and straightforward.  I
pollinate the flowers on dry days using totally fresh flowers for the pod
parent.  After the seed ripen in the summer, I shell the pods and put them
in paper drinking cups with napkins on top held with rubber bands.  Each
cross has a tag showing the parents.  Then I transfer them to small
envelopes and give the crosses numbers.  I use a letter to denote year of
the cross, a number to denote the cross number, and another letter to
denote the particular save.  For example HINDENBURG was E31A which means it
was made in the E year (1980) and was the 31st cross (sorted alphabetically
on the computer) and A meaning it was the first save in this cross. The
seeds are lined out in sterile soil in November, transplanted to rows in
April, and will bloom in the following spring.  Every year one crop gets
transplanted to the field, one crop gets reviewed for saves, and reselects
must be chosen and others discarded.
	    
I tend to use predominately my own seedlings in most of my breeding because
I have more familiarity with their genetic makeup (genotype).  I use
aluminum marker tags to record my notes on reselects which stay with the
plants.  After two or three years of growing a reselect, it becomes clear
whether or not it can be introduced.  At this point, it must be given a
name. This may sound like an easy task, but the name has a big impact on
the future of a cultivar.  We maintain a listing on the computer of perhaps
over 800+ names.  We also are always on the lookout for good names.  We
read restaurant menus, billboards, highway signs, commercial ads in
magazines and so forth.  If we see something that we think is especially
catchy, we may even reserve the name for future use.
	   
 I hope this article has provided a little glimpse of how we see
hybridizing.  I would also hope it might encourage one of you to give it a
try.  You may get hooked just as I have.
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