HYB: hybridizer's selection/hardiness

From: Linda Mann <lmann@icx.net>

Apologies for not saving the message - I think Betty brought up the
topic of whether hybridizers ought to be introducing plants that would
grow better in difficult climates or if gardeners ought to do a better
job of growing them.  

We beat this to death on the list in the past, but here's my tuppence.  

I would hate to see hybridizers working towards isolating specific genes
that show up first in 'weak' lines NOT save them just because I can't
grow them or I don't have the temperament to fool with fussy growers.  

It takes all kinds - some folks like me want to leave their irises in
place for years and have them smothered in sweet williams and bloom
reliably and don't really care about show stalks (in fact, I kinda like
just 1 or 2 blooms open at once per stalk, but lotsa stalks).  Others
won't buy an iris if it doesn't have potential to win in a show.  Some
can't stand to see a sick plant and will do whatever it takes to make it
live, while others walk away.

I don't mind that a lot of truly beautiful irises won't live & bloom
here, as long as their genes are out there.  No fair criticizing a
hybridizer for introducing something that won't grow & bloom everywhere,
unless they claim it will.

I do wish there was something comparable to the rebloomer checklist that
would say which cultivars have been reported to live and bloom more than
the year of out of state purchase.  

And regional awards for gardenability, among irises that have already
won an HM or AM.  No considerations of flower (other than that they
manage to produce them!)

Well, I gotta go start a pot of bushy-tailed rat stew, made from one of
the crew that was upending MY irises last month.

Linda Mann east Tennessee USA


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