HYB: ?traits/thoughts

Probably the wrong time of year to get much discussion on this, but
maybe we can start, then bring it up again later?

What I think I have learned from my limited experience and/or
discussions with experienced hybridizers.

1). PETAL WIDTH...
Seedlings can have wider form than either of their parents.  I've been
told this and have also seen it in an orange bearded white bee seedling
from WHERE THERE'S SMOKE.

However, seedlings are more likely to have narrower form than either
parent.  I don't have experience to back it up (other than the bee
baby), but am under the impression that it should be fairly easy to
improve width of petals in one generation by crossing with wider things.

===I'm a bit worried that wide petals goes with horizontal falls (which
I really dislike in TBs).  Anybody know if this is true?

2). BRANCHING ...
From my limited experience, improved branching seems to be easy to get
in one generation.  I'm not sure about this - it may be that seedlings
selected under my stressful growing conditions are just able to express
branching <potential> from both parents.  In other words, both parents
may have had good branching where they were born and selected, so I may
not be seeing an improvement.

On the other hand, Tom Parkhill tells me that DUSKY CHALLENGER passes on
it's good branching to many of its seedlings.

====I don't know if better branching appears spontaneously from parents
with poorer branching.

3).  FRAGRANCE...
I haven't learned much about inheritance of fragrance, except with the
pallida crosses I've made.  The seedlings have usually been less sweetly
fragrant than pallida, but I haven't made any crosses with sweetly
fragrant TBs.\

4).  STALK HEIGHT...
So many short rebloomers out there!  Including my own seedlings.

===Have hybridizers intentionally selected for short stalks in
rebloomers?  Are seedlings from one short stalked parent mostly
short-stalked?

--
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>
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