HYB: Lilac to lavender

"I find it very hard to imagine anything that's named 'Cranberry' or
'Raspberry' fits within a 'lavender/lilac' color group."--Christian, KY

Cranberry, royal purple or plum purple, as well as cerise are colors, when
diluted, can yield rose to lavender or lilac seedlings, depending on the
genetic makeup of the other parent crossed with the one so richly colored.
The crosses I have made with orchid pinks, or pastel-producing irises like
Fogbound have given some seedlings in rose to lilac tones.

What I am actually after is a recreation of Schortman's iris variety PATIENCE
in more modern dress.  It is an historic iris which has a magenta rose violet
color with an incredibly beautiful glow about it, partly due to a soft yellow
beard, but primarily due to a certain sheen with which SNOW FLURRY often
gifted its offspring.

Patience is in no sense a lilac or lavender color, although its color would
dilute to something in that range.  If you read my post that started this
series of threads you will find no reference to lilac or lavender as the goal
of the project.  I named off the breeding groups but did not comment on the
goal in terms of color.  I'll take what I get in colors--I just want tough,
resistant irises that can flourish in difficult conditions--of whatever color.
But the breeding pattern is producing tones of red to odd yellow/lilac/greyed
blends suggestive of some of Keppel's kindred varieties such as SUSPICION,
along with soft rose and violet-to-lilac tones  None of these variants were
surprises considering the ancestries involved.

I don't find that sheen like Snow Flurry often imparted to its seedlings among
modern irises, although my memory may have painted an unrealistic or
exaggerated image of the textural glow.  The offspring of Silverado and other
Carriage Trade-bred whites sometimes come close to what I remember in seedling
rows from the hey-day of Snow Flurry and New Snow as parents.

The diploid pollen parent of Snow Flurry, incidentally, was a delicate color
of "pallida pink" which is much as you describe the middle ground between iris
"blue" and pink.  THAIS is among those pictured on the HIPS website, I
believe.

Neil Mogensen   z 7  western NC

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