HYB: long falls

Barbara, I will be really interested to hear how your WILLIAM SETCHELL
crosses turn out, if you go ahead and try a few.  I have several really
healthy seedlings that I haven't tried any crosses with because the
falls seem disproportionately long compared to their width and the size
of the standards.

With all the new stirred up genes out there now, I keep hoping there are
combinations possible for these tough old critters that were beyond
dreaming about 'back in the day'.

Neil, what do you think - if Barbara (or I) were really determined to
work with SETCHELL or blooms with similar form, how many generations
would it take to fatten and shorten those falls?  If it has 4 doses of
long narrow fall genes, wouldn't it be possible to get rid of the trait
in a few generations?  Assuming that isn't tightly linked to some other
dreadful thing.

Maybe the MTB breeders have some insight into this - seems like the form
of the falls on those has changed dramatically from long and narrow to
shorter and fatter.

As an example of using old stuff that produced problem children - Neil,
you described some of the problems that came from PINK FORMAL back when
it was first making the rounds.  But you've noted (if I remember right
and understood what you were describing), my modern crosses using it
haven't produced anything like that.  The form may have at least another
generation to go to get it up to modern standards, but that's still only
the F3.  Lots of F1's (children) and F2's (grandchildren) of various
sorts should bloom this year.  PF is the grandparent of that lovely
reblooming variegata.

I may be posting crow dinners once I see the rest of them bloom <g>
--
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