HYB: Do all dogs go to the pound?

Well gang,
   
  My taped together seedling has finally begun its maiden bloom, and it's a woofer.
   
  Well, it's very plain anyway. With two plicata parents I was expecting some kind of plicata markings and out of two seedlings to bloom (the entire cross) neither was true plicata.
   
  03-9-3 which is now blooming is just your basic purple iris.  When I saw that it was just a purple iris I said to myself "I'll just use it for crosses this year and then dump it." There's not any point monkeying around with a plain purple iris when the goal that cross was aiming at was green, is there?
   
  If I can get a picture I'll post it.  The hubby is doing that selective hearing/remembering thing.
   
  Today,  I forced myself to sit down and actually look at 03-9-3 to see what merits it might have.  For starters the blooms seem to be getting bigger with each one that opens.  The form's okay, not enough ruffles, but nicely proportioned S/F and arched just so.  The beard is that goldenrod yellow color at first glance... let me set the second glance in another post... but I hate yellow beards on purple iris!  The falls are quite round and have the most luscious velvety texture.  Next to the beards there's a little nest of white spaces (Do you call it a zonal pattern? or is that what they call a lumi-plic?  I'm on my way to the archives I promise.) with veins between.
   
  Then I started to think about the things y'all have said about the seedlings that you keep as breeders.  So I counted buds.  2 branches and a spur, blooming at 27", on a moderately high calibre stalk (eyeballing I'ld guess 35... have to get those calipers).  Terminal bud and lowest branch triple socketed, others with two buds. (the math is..um...10 buds?)  The branches, especially the lowest one, are set well away from the stalk... so well I started thinking I could use the pollen on the flats.  Two blooms open at a time on each stalk, two stalks blooming now and two more coming.  One of the coming stalks is from the piece that broke loose when I moved beds last summer.  Total of 14 fans three years from cross date.
   
  Anyway, I don't hate it as much, especially with the beards, as I did at first.  It has been very generous with the pollen... I crossed it to six different blooms with one stamen yesterday, just have to wait to see if it sets any of the pods.  With four stalks I could easily exhaust all the strain dictated crosses in this one season, and I have already decided it needed to go to this that and the other thing just on it's own merits.  
   
  I was already cringing at the numer of crosses I have made so far this year and how many seeds I might get... that would have to be lined out...and now I have what...24 potential pods from a dog seedling?
   
  Does the plain brown puppy go to the pound right away or after you find out if she'll throw spotted puppies?
   
  Christian
  ky

		
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