Re: HYB: TB: question - making wider falls/hafts etc?
- Subject: Re: HYB: TB: question - making wider falls/hafts etc?
- From: n*@charter.net
- Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 22:03:07 -0000
--- In iris-talk@y..., Linda Mann <lmann@i...> wrote:
"...when I say 'waterfall' I don't mean hang-dog. I really dislike
horizontal falls on TBs...But what I mean by waterfall is something
that arches out nicely, goes down at an angle (maybe 45o) then has a
bit of ruffle (the waves that the falls make?).
I'm glad you clarified that. By hang-dog, I meant those that look
like some of the pallidas--turn down abruptly from the end of the
beard, then are even convex below--curve in toward the stem, then out
a bit at the end.
On Walter's comment on one-in-a-thousand as a keeper--you know, that
depends on the cross. Some crosses--of good stuff even--produce
compost. Period. For everyone. Then there are occasional parents
that seem never to throw a bad one. I remember a row of Arabi Pasha
seedlings (I forget the other parent, but it was an Award of Merit
type American blue, nice and wide, etc.) that was darned near uniform
GOOD. Problem was, not one of them was GOOD enough! They sat there
for about three years, blooming away, and then went into the compost
too. I wish now I had gone on with at least one of them, but I was
so stumped about which one to do it with I could never decide.
Gordon Plough's cross that produced one of his red-blacks, I think
Swahili, were mostly hum-drum, not too bad, not real outstanding,
then there was this one that, wow! did it ever stand out. On its
maiden bloom it was tall, large flower, beautifully branched, etc.
etc. Then I saw it after it was on the market a while--almost border
size, and not near the flower it was in its first flush. It was
still that one in a thousand, but not with the flourish and drum roll
that were promised on the maiden bloom.
Two medium width flowers crossed, *might* produce one wider, but
those are the ones you watch for, hope for, and when they happen,
grab it and run with it into the next generation. Most of the time
the gain is slow, incremental, and if you are watching for branching,
bud count, and attractive foliage at the same time, you're going to
be growing *very* long seedling rows. And then again, you might get
lucky....
Neil Mogensen near Asheville, NC
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