HYB: ruminations, older crosses

I was excited to see Neil's post (on the photos list, I think) about
using ORCHID CLOUD in some crosses.  Wondering how to improve form,
without losing those good tough genes from ORCHID C.

Now that I've bloomed quite a few seedlings using older parents, thought
I would share a few observations:

(1) Strength/health (<not> the same as rapid growth, fan production!)
Strong healthy cultivars may or may not produce strong healthy babies,
depending on the other parent.  Two strong healthy parents seem to
always produce at least a few strong healthy babies, but can produce a
<lot> of weak ones also.

The two strongest healthiest parents I've worked with so far are
IMMORTALITY and HARVEST OF MEMORIES.  HOM seems to pass along the
strong-healthy genes more consistently than IMM.  A lot more.  But it
also produces a lot more blooms, nearly always with good pollen, &
rarely stunted stalks, while IMM rarely produces pollen, is more likely
to produce stunted stalks or has blooms rot or freeze.

(2)  Bloom characteristics
Still trying to figure this one out, & have no idea how to predict what
the babies will do.  Sometimes two old looking babies will produce
better looking seedlings.  It seems to depend on what the combination
is, and I have no idea what to look for.

I have bloomed the most seedlings from HARVEST OF MEMORIES.  I crossed
it with everything I could think of from various backgrounds, trying to
"mix it up" as much as possible.

Many (most?) of the crosses had very small flowers (IB sized, at best)
on small weak stalks.

Many had blooms that looked pretty much like HOM.

One cross with an old (40s ish) unknown gave two rebloom seedlings with
nice big flowers, good substance, nice stalks and branching, only fault
is somewhat narrow petals.

Another cross with SEAKIST gave two rebloom seedlings with no apparent
faults - could pass for modern (at least 90s).

Would love to hear from others who have bloomed seedlings from older
parents, what faults you've run into, what you plan to do next, etc.

My approach is to keep using the original 'good' parent and keep trying
to find the best spouse to bring out the traits I want, rather than
working with the kids.  I was ready to abandon that approach until I saw
those two rebloom seedlings last fall.

Unless the parent keeps producing the same faults no matter what
bloodlines/color lines I combine with it.

--
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/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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