Re: If you could ignore hybridizing barriers...(question)

Hello Christian,
I look forward to seeing the results of your flattie
work. I think that they're really neat irises and I've
always wanted to work with them too. I had to decide
to leave those plans to someone else for now; I just
have too many plans already. You have to draw the line
somewhere I guess.
But, PLEASE don't let me discourage anything you might
have been planning on trying. Actually, I think
there's a whole lot more possible [as far as
hybridizing goes] than we all think we know. I'm
actually going to try some pretty far-out experiments
myself. I know that people have said repeatedly, that
bearded and beardless won't cross. But wouldn't it be
fun, for one of us adventurous hardheads, to prove all
the naysayers wrong. 

People said for many years that corn/maize wouldn't
cross with one of it's relatively close relatives, a
grass called Tripsacum. Crosses had been tried and
never been successful.
Then one day a determined person, tried the cross (yet
again) with a certain strain of popcorn, that just
happened to be more compatible (with Tripsacum) than
most corns. Now it's fairly standard procedure to
cross corn and Tripsacum, you just have to be sure to
start with a compatible strain of corn.

Who knows... maybe there is a particular bearded iris
or beardless iris that would just be cooperative
enough to allow that supposed barrier
(bearded/beardless) to be breached. One thing is for
sure, if it exists, we'll never find it, without
continued trying.

I know that I've personally experienced considerable
difficulty in getting hybrids between bearded and Iris
tectorum. My determination to continue trying crosses
came largely from knowing that it really was possible
[because of the existence of the iris 'Paltec']. If
noone had ever done it before, I could have easily
concluded that it wasn't possible, after multiple
failed attempts. 

So, go ahead and try some long shots along with your
more conventional stuff.

Good luck, Tom
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