Re: TB, HYB, HIST mystery of my grandfather

Kendal

Do you have a photo of this orange iris to share

Colleen Modra
Adelaide Hills AUST
zone 8/9

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kendal Liddle" <kliddle@richter7.com>
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 9:24 AM
Subject: [iris] TB, HYB, HIST mystery of my grandfather


> There is a story that has been passed down in the family regarding my
> grandfather. I am hoping to somehow verify whether or not any of this
story
> is or could be true. Unfortunately both grandparents are now deceased
> leaving just my father to tell the story. My fathers version of the story
is
> in question for reasons of the passing of time (he would have been very
> young) and the fact that he has no interest now, nor never had had any
> interest in anything green. I was too young when he died to have
understood
> the significance of his explanations of how he made the crosses in his
> garden, though I do have memories of him telling me their names and which
> plants parented which offspring.
>
> The story goes that my grandfather was a hybridizer of TB, gladiolas, and
a
> few other flowers. He never officially named or introduced any TB to my
> knowledge, just did it for himself and the local flower shows where he
> regularly won recognition and top honors. The part in question is that he
> developed a dark orange before others. News of this particular iris made
it
> to Burpee who offered him a nice sum of money for for the plant. He
refused.
> A few years later Burpee offered a similar plant from another source. He
> never let this particular iris go except to the family. When my
grandparents
> died we removed all the "family orange" iris before selling the house.
>
> This would have been back in the 1950's. The part I am looking to verify
is
> the existence of or how common or rare orange tb were back then. I would
not
> know where to start. I am wondering if there are any experts out there on
> the history of TB hybrids who could offer any information about the
> plausibility of this story. There is no doubt that Grandpa's orange iris
is
> very beautiful, my question is just how unique was it, or is my Dad full
of
> 100% organic bovine produced compost. It is a standard TB self about the
> color of canned peaches with a beard of the same color.
>
> If orange was a common color back then it won't change how I feel about
this
> iris. I will just have to adjust the story when I pass the flower on to my
> son to be that Burpee wanted it just because they thought it was uniquely
> beautiful not uniquely colored.
>
> Word to the wise to all this hobby hybridizers Keep a garden journal and
> give it to your grandchildren. From what I dad tells me, the green thumb
> skips a generation.
>
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