Re: HYB: Substance

I hate to post a 'me too', but was surprised to hear mention of texture
as a criterion for substance.  I'm with Donald on this one - blooms that
break rather than flop, blooms that last several days in the heat or dry
wind.  I think of poor substance as something that acts like a sheet of
tissue versus good substance that acts like stiff paper.  But not too
stiff.

There's another aspect to this that I've noticed here.  Some blooms (my
orange small flowered tall seedling, for example) have what seems to be
nice substance, but tend to shatter in heavy rain.  They seem to be
stiff enough but the cells don't hold together in rain.  Individual
blooms wind up looking shredded.  The standards are much more prone to
this than falls.  I'm not sure, but I think this is more common among
blooms that have slightly more upright, rather than arched standards.

So I prefer substance that is pliable enough not to shatter, but stiff
enough to hold up in heat and wind.

> I'm curious what criteria are being used to determine substance.>

                  < For me it's measured against wind and hot
temperatures.  Those without
                   substance tend to bruise quickly and then start
melting in the heat and
                   wind.  They lose their form pretty quick. The best of
those with a lot of
                   substance don't bruise and retain the bloom form in
the heat.  In high
                   winds, the really good ones actually have a fall or
standard simply break
                   off in a clean line - or if there is enough wind
simply pull the whole stalk
                   over and still hold the bloom form undamaged.

                   There is a lot in between the extremes of no
substance and lots of
                   substance.                   Donald Eaves  Texas Zone
7b, USA>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
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online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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