Re: HYB: seedlings, planning, notebooks

Like Betty, I spend a <lot> of time over the winter taking notes,
rummaging thru pedigrees, making plans for spring.  Then spring comes
along, and the plans may or may not match what's cooperating that year.
And like Betty, I've learned that some of the 'frustration' and bee
crosses can be more productive in terms of getting where I want to go
than some of the planned crosses turn out.

But unlike Betty, I am a <long> ways from having foundation lines going
and having much understanding of which types of crosses are going to
work well for what I'm trying to do.

I've learned that the notes that are most valuable to me once the
daubing actually starts are reminders of the goals I'm working towards,
which <types> of crosses might make an advance in that direction, and
what I need to evaluate carefully <before> using some pretty thing that
catches my fancy.

And this year, my notes say I need to spend a <lot> of time evaluating
seedlings I already have to see if some of the things I'm doing are
actually making any progress.

As someone said here recently, the goal for any one bloom season seems
to change from year to year - last year, increasing width, substance,
and (for the rebloom carriers), height were the primary focus.

This year, while waiting for those crosses to get big enough to bloom to
see if I've gotten anything useful, the plan includes increasing
ruffles, reducing white mess on hafts and around beard.

Over all health, robust growth, height, and rebloom carriers remaining
the primary goals.  Adequate to excellent bud count and branching seems
to be present on everything without trying, so haven't had to pay any
attention to that so far.

The field notebook gets bigger every year - it has several sections:
1-    a couple of calendar pages (April May), big enough for notes.
2-    new additions in 2005 (in alphabetic order), followed by new
additions in 2004.  These entries are the same as in the 4th section,
but kept separate to make them easier to find and make notes on what has
lived/died.
3-    pages for evaluating seedlings.  Last year, I printed out pages
with name and number of cross, location in the garden, and a column each
for bud count, height, branching, color, bloom size, and notes.  Hardly
any of this got done during bloom season, but the bits that did get
filled in were helpful.
4-    complete list, by row and position in the row, of everything in
the garden.   Hybridizer, year of registration, source and year of
arrival here. Pedigrees or key parts of pedigrees for anything newish or
that I'm considering using.
5-    index, sorted by cultivar name or seedling code, for everything in
the garden.

Finally, because this can all start feeling non-creative, I always do a
few crosses just for fun, totally outside 'the plan'.  Usually with the
tough oldies.

I look at pollen daubing as art as well as some science, with a three
dimensional canvas that has hidden qualities, using invisible paint,
like multiple layers of pottery glazes?  At least half the fun for me is
what takes place in my head and heart while creating the artwork.

 <I've heard some of y'all mention planning during the winter to make
certain crosses come bloom season.  How do you get your plans to the
beds?  Christian>

--
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>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index