Re: SA: Spage Agers and Abhorrance
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: SA: Spage Agers and Abhorrance
- From: z*@mindspring.com (L.Zurbrigg)
- Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 20:56:51 -0700 (MST)
>Walta said:
>
><< In the late fifties, Lloyd Austin developed the first Space Age
> <irises, and to this day they are abhorred by many.>
>
>And, referring to the above, Celia continued:
>
> <Do they have valid concerns, or is the revulsion merely a conflict of taste?
> Ron Mullin went to town on SAs during the judging school he gave for us
> last summer. He left the impression it was kind of a wicked thing to breed
> SAs. >>
>
>I'm not comfortable with the idea of dismissing any entire stylistic category
>of irises as unattractive out of hand or suggesting that any sincere
>hybridizing activity is inappropriate.
>
>Individual tastes always play a role in our appreciation of irises, and
>individual tastes differ, although frequently it is possible to identify a
>consensus. The bottom line for us individually and collectively is whether a
>particular iris in question is an attractive iris in and of itself independent
>of category. Now, with the space agers, some are, to my eye, more attractive
>than others. In some the extra petaloid parts are an embellishment, in some
>others they are an improbable fleshy overgrowth that obscures form. But I
>cannot imagine telling anyone not to play around with hybridizing them if the
>spirit moved them that way.
>
>It should go without saying that any iris that repeated fails to open is a
>crummy plant regardless of of what its configuration is.
>
>Anner Whitehead, Richmond,VA
>Henry Hall henryanner@aol.com
Dear Anner and Hwnry: Thank you for the comments. I stayed in the closet
for many years in regard to the Space-Agers because the opposition was so
violent!The trouble with trying to commit everyone to your point of view,
is that it just does not work. Once upon a time, there was a fairly
vigorous objection to plicatas, and President Pilkington of the BIS had
scathing remarks for all breeders of plicatas. This just made Jim Gibson go
out to his garden and make a bunch more plicata crosses. I have some pet
aversions, but to try to prevent others from crossing for such objectives
is useless. I predict that some very lovely Space-Agers will appear in the
first decade of the 21st Century. Lloyd Zurbrigg Durham NC
