HYB: goals

Good topic, Linda!

I think for a hybridizer to have some define goals, if not perhaps a single
preeminent goal, is essential to long-term gains.  I offer an example from my
own years of hybridizing experience.

In my early years I played the field, crossing everything with everything
else, growing thousands of compostable seedlings and rarely recognizing
something really promising when it was starting me in the face.

This time around, I started out with my first acquisitions from Keppel with a
definite range of color in mind.  I've always loved the Snow Flurry seedling
PATIENCE, so I thought to seek to recreate it in modern form.  Since I had
been totally out of touch with irises for about twenty years, I asked Keith to
select some promising breeders for me and suggested how many--perhaps a dozen
or so--that I had room to plant while still living in Fletcher, south of
Asheville.

Among those he sent were Romantic Evening and Swingtown, one of the two
successful crosses I made that year.  When the Swingtown X RE seedlings
bloomed, the very first one was stunning--and has since been named POWER WOMAN
which I believe Snowpeak will be introducing in 2007.

In the seasons to follow I brought my Check Lists and annual R&I's up to date
and began studying pedigree-trees, web-sites and catalogs, getting acquainted
with the "What's Happening Now" in the AIS.

The following generation of seedlings included several more sent by Keppel,
including FOGBOUND and FIERY TEMPER, both of which have yielded lovely
seedlings from Power Woman.  R 19-2 from PW X Fogbound is under consideration
for introduction, and I am looking for a name.

I have begun to approach the "Patience" goal, after a fashion, in several of
the "R" generation, crosses among them sitting in cans unplanted due to my
long and continuing issues with multiple heath problems, I am sorry to say.
The outrageous weather last year also managed to thin the selection
drastically.  The remainder are presumed to be more than unusually tough
survivors in a climate not really fit for bearded irises.

A second project picks up from one I had in the late 1950's, which I call my
"Cremona" project.  I had registered the name for a seedling that after its
registration ended up in the compost.  It looked horrid!

The vision remained, however.  I had in mind standards of apricot blushed pink
and lightening to yellow at the edges, falls glistening white with a fairly
narrow but definite band of apricot yellow, and having a vivid red beard.  An
iris of this type is Schreiner's CHAMPAGNE WALTZ.

The parents that have gone into the mix fishing for a new "Cremona" have
included Jersey Bounce, Happenstance, Lotus Land, and especially Barbara My
Love.  Others have entered in, with some of the early results for both
projects pictured at:
http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=288571363
&security=nBiOCQ

Among those shown are Power Woman,  a sib to Power Woman, the R 19-2 seedling
in three views, the lowest one showing the quality branching and presentation
the seedling demonstrates, and several seedlings from the "Cremona" project as
well.

Several of these seedlings resulted from some generous-hearted mischief Keith
Keppel and Barry Blyth cooked up a few years ago during my early recovery from
the first several medical adventures.  Barry e-mailed me from Oregon asking if
I would be interested in having him make some crosses for me while he was at
Keppel's, and I jumped at the chance.

At his request I suggested these two goals described above and said not more
than about a dozen pods.  Keith grew and harvested the seeds, sent them, I
planted and gingerly cultivated them (radically limited at what I could do),
then photographed them when the first seedlings bloomed.  Most of those shown
on this website have survived since I dug and planted them in pots when it
became obvious we had a problem with losses beginning.  Quite a few survivors
from the crosses remain, mostly the result of surviving sprigs that made it
through last August.  Some that had looked promising were lost, however, even
in the pots.  Se la vie.

If anything out of the Blyth-Keppel generosity end up registered I'm not
really sure who should get the credit.  The plants, pollen and culture were
Keith's (including several unnamed numbered seedlings), the pollen daubing
Barry's, the ensuing planting, etc. mine.  Talk about a community project!

Then two years ago I made a number of purchases of some promising breeding
materials for the two projects.  I lost almost all of them last summer, even
after seeing some bloom.  The seeds I did obtain are still in their envelopes,
unplanted.

Now I have come to the realization I cannot any longer garden more than
fritter in a few square feet.  Even carrying a ten-pound sack of potatoes in
from the car for Dorothy is very uncomfortable.   My vitality and will to live
increase slowly but steadily but it is clear I will never be able to resume
the work I have done.

A friend within the iris community has volunteered to take and grow the
remaining seedlings for me, a most generous offer.  At least the tag end of
the projects will see daylight and hopefully bring delight to others as they
have to me.

I do log on to Iris-talk often and read what you all are saying, but rarely
feel motivated to post.  I think you may understand why.

Neil Mogensen  Reg 4  z 7  western NC mountains--a climate Siberians love but
which doesn't love TB's!

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