re: Breeding for Older Form, ALSO good Garden Plants


        I am a little surprised that nobody has mentioned that in most any cross
using any parents a large percentage will have "older form" - some call them 
"dogs" :,)

        It is possible to create new iris using TWO older parents - but why - it
has already been done for many years and the best results of this work are still
with us. It may be possible to transfer some of the new patterns and colors to 
older iris (by crossing the OLD with NEW), and in the process the hybridizer 
would learn a lot about linkage of genes when trying to separate genes for 
colors/patterns from those for form, ruffles, branching and growth habit.

        My own hybridizers wish list involves breeding for better GARDEN 
performance across all varieties of iris, some of the qualities I like/dislike 
are:

        1) Longer period in bloom:
                Individual flowers last longer
                More flowers per stalk
                Flowers on a stalk do not open all at once
                More stalks per clump
                Stalks develop over a period of time
                Bloom other than just Spring (Rebloom)

        2) Excellent growth:
                Offsets are produced regularly, and spaced well
                Rhizomes do not overproduce offsets to the point of crowding
                Leaves are straight and do not twist or "crinkle", including 
those on bloomstalks.
                Leaves remain attractive during non-bloom periods with some 
grooming.
                Tolerance to light shade
                Iris do not require regular chemical fertilization to perform 
well
                
        3) Disease Resistance:
                Iris should not require regular spraying for fungal diseases 
when grown under reasonable conditions.


        I happen to prefer Large, Ruffled Flowers with Broad petals and I have 
no apologies for that ! 
        

        Is anyone out there interested in breeding short Siberians ? I thought I
would play with these as they would be good rock garden subjects and not be as 
difficult to grow across the US as the PCI's are. I am aware of BABY SISTER, are
there any others ?

        Chad Schroter
        Los Gatos CA Zone 9
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