Re: HYB: Goals - height - help

Have any of you crossed registered tall TBs (36" or taller) with
registered shorter TBs (34" or shorter)?  Are heights of seedlings
mostly in between with a few talls and a few short, or are the seedlings
mostly short or does it depend on heights of grand- or even great
grandparents?

I've asked this question several times over the years and have never
gotten any answers (or if I did, don't remember....).  I keep hoping
someone out there can help with this so I won't have to re-invent <that>
wheel along with all the other health related breeding questions.

From what I see in the checklists, it looks like short crossed with
short or tall breeds short, but not usually tall.  And tall crossed with
tall often breeds tall, but sometimes short, especially in cold climate
rebloomer lines?  But maybe there were tall siblings that weren't worth
introducing?

I'm working towards getting more reliable tall stalk production,
independant of late spring freezes, erratic winter weather, and bloom
season drought.

There are some recent introductions that are pretty consistant in stalk
height, but not enough to build a breeding program here.  Stalks of many
selections from other climates are either stunted or miniaturized.  And
many of the rebloomers that do really well here are short stalked, not
because of damage but just because that's as tall as they can grow.
Like Bill Burleson, I prefer TBs that I don't have to sit down on the
ground to see (or hybridize).

Some observations from memory, not notes taken (so take with a grain of
salt):

Stunted stalks rarely seem to produce viable pollen, but will sometimes
set pods. Plants can be otherwise healthy and good growers here.
Examples: SPIRIT OF FIJI, some of the IMMORTALITY seedlings.

Miniaturized stalks often produce viable pollen, but I've never tried to
set pods on them.  They don't look healthy enough to carry a pod, and
are nearly always poor growers that don't survive very long here.

Several of the older classics that do well here have tall stalks that
I've never seen stunt or miniaturize - i.e., HELEN COLLINGWOOD,
SHANNOPIN, PINK FORMAL.

I haven't bloomed enough types of crosses to sort out heredity of these
stalk traits yet, and suspect a lot of it has to do with root traits
(i.e., capacity to rapidly grow a root system that can feed and water a
tall stalk in adverse conditions).  But here's what I've noticed so far,
at least among surviving seedlings:

Pollen from a reliably tall seedling from two reliably tall parents
crossed on a registered short, stunter pod parent (IMMORTALITY) produced
some reliably tall children.  Looks like this has sorted out as a normal
distribution.

Pollen from a miniaturized (now near death) registered tall parent
(ROMANTIC EVENING) crossed on a reliably tall older classic (HELEN
COLLINGWOOD) produced all reliably tall seedlings (only a few from this
cross have matured to bloom size so far - more up this year).

--
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>
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