[SpaceAgeRobin] Re: Thinking about crosses to make


As usual when I am a member of a group such as this, I am a week 
late in getting in on the action.  Actually, I am about 40 years too 
late! Let me explain.  My grandfather was an iris and tulip 
hybridizer in the 50s and 60s.  As his oldest and most attentive 
grandson, I tagged along and watched him make crosses. He let me 
make a cross--on a tulip--when I was ten.  Later I graduated to a 
few iris crosses, and I was hooked!  Problem is I haven't made any 
crosses since, and I am now nearing 55. LOL. So . . . I am about 40 
years too late, methinks. But I put an iris bed in this past fall 
and, as I near retirement, I will see if I can catch up some.

This morning I noticed that a SDB--not a SAger, sorry--had opened.  
With tweezers in hand I made the foray into the iris beds. But, 
alas, there were no other SDBs open with which I could make a cross 
on that open PILOT bloom.  Sound familiar to you oldtimers?  (HINT: 
if you've been a hybridizer for a week, you ARE an oldtimer in my 
estimation.) I did notice that three more SDBs were getting ready to 
bloom--all GNU GENERATION--so pulled anthers and pocketd (enveloped) 
the PILOT pollen for later use.  My first attempt at getting the 
anthers was funny--poor PILOT lost most of one beard before I 
realized I was trying to harvest a beard! My wife was watching and 
she thought that was indicative of where my iris breeding was headed.

In any event, I did check to see how the TBs were doing--have 
bloomstalks going up and some ready to open--but my three resident 
SAgers are not among the productive.  An old piece of SNOW SPOON--
picked up at the Mesilla Valley Iris Society sale last September-- 
is growing; CONJURATION is growing.  SOLAR FIRE is growing.  And 
that's it from this SAger iris bed. But SOLAR FIRE will be tried on 
any and all TBs that bloom when it does send up a bloomstalk and 
opens. I like that iris.

What fun! Forty years later it is STILL as exciting as it was when I 
was ten. Now let's see where all of this heads.

Shannon Hiatt
El Paso, Texas, region (either zone 7b or 8)

--- In SpaceAgeRobin@yahoogroups.com, "Colleen Modra" <colleen@i...> 
wrote:
> Neil
> 
> We're in the start of autumn and rebloom is really just starting.
> Rosalie Figge, Double Shot, Anxious, Bonus Mama, Cantina, St 
Petersberg. 
> Main rebloom in about 4 weeks time. Also have my new Sutton 
imports blooming as they go fairly mad after the season change of 
importation. Have set pods on Brides Blush, Grand Circle and 
Westpointer and a few others. George has never bred from Westpointer 
so I'll be interested to see what it gives. I want it's looks on a 
regular rebloomer.
> 
> I'll be planting out my burritos of seeds soon. That always gives 
me lustful thoughts about what could be, as  I think again about 
what inspired the cross. Sometimes this leads to confusion as I 
can't remember why I earth I would make such a cross, but mostly I 
can recall the exact reason.
> 
> Have a Yaquinna Blue seedling nicely headed to bloom for the first 
time. The pod parent is a SA, but it's very dark at the moment (4am) 
so I can't go and check what it is. Will post when it flowers.
> 
> Colleen Modra
> Adelaide Hills AUST
> zone 8/9
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Neil A Mogensen 
>   To: Space Age Robin 
>   Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 1:58 AM
>   Subject: [SpaceAgeRobin] Thinking about crosses to make
> 
> 
>   Yesterday I got carried away with myself--and was desperate to 
get things under way--so I spent too many hours at work outside, 
cleaning up winter weeds and cleaning away windblown oak leaves, 
Magnolia plastic leaves (at least they feel like plastic, so stiff 
and hard), and winter-dead foliage on the irises.  
> 
>   When I went to try to stand up, I sure noticed I had gone too 
far.  My old bones and muscles have softened over winter, and I'm 
not in condition for as much as I did.  I made good progress in the 
garden, though.  I just suffered a bit from having done so.  Such is 
life and the Golden Years.
> 
>   So last night, despite extra painkillers, I spent a loooong time 
before sleep caught up with me.  It was a wonderful excuse to plot 
mischief and think about crosses.  Besides, the Mid-America catalog 
came yesterday, and there are some lovely, tempting things in their 
introductions and listings, including last year's ANNOUNCEMENT.
> 
>   There were not so many SA's this year as usual, I noted, but wax 
and wane is the course of all natural events.  This is the 
low "wane" before the next high wave, I suppose.
> 
>   Devonshire Cream was looking good, as were a few others.  I've 
got to move L. Anfosso's FLUTE ENCHANTÉ out into better light.  
She's not so happy where she is, and not increasing.  A towering 
Crepe (Crape?) Myrtle overshadows and root-competes in that 
location.  I can give FLUTE better--this delicate pink offspring of 
Beverly Sills has wonderful substance and form, and the most 
delightful long, simple horn.  It is a most satisfying garden 
subject, as well as being a very good simple-horn SA.  I have yet to 
get pods from its pollen, or set a pod on it after three years of 
trying.  Maybe this year!
> 
>   I splurged and bought a couple more Christopherson varieties 
last year.  I was so pleased with the flounced IN A HEARTBEAT that I 
bought its wider sib, HEARTBEAT AWAY, also a flounced yellow.  
> 
>   BYE BYE BLUES and PRAETORIAN GUARD look healthy, happy, and I 
hope to see bloom on them as well.  SOLAR FIRE, still another 2004 
acquisition, offers endless opportunities for parenthood.
> 
>   Many of these are included in the lists or alternate lists for 
the hoped-for crosses of 2005.
> 
>   YAQUINA BLUE is an obvious, proven, parent for flounced SA's, so 
it's a natural.
> 
>   Christopherson's LET'S BE FRIENDS is a near-SA or proto-horned, 
occasionally minimally horned (I think) not-quite-non-SA offspring 
of SPIRIT WORLD, that is an obvious potential parent, as is 
DEVONSHIRE CREAM, despite the reports on poor performance in the SW. 
> 
>   Also, some that show conspicuous BSE's such as SWINGTOWN offer 
potential, provided it blooms.  It is in decline due to neglect and 
badly in need of resetting, so I may not see bloom on it here this 
year.  These offer good potential, as does the Yaquina Blue-
offspring SEA POWER.  I'd like to see what kind of SA's it might 
give.
> 
>   Similarly, CORDOVA, closely related to QUITO, one of those noted 
as giving few if any SA's might be one to try for the cross-type 
with non-productive-of-SA parents.
> 
>   These crosses with those known or reported NOT to give SA 
progeny are important!  I may not see bloom on my remnants of 
ROMANTIC EVENING-I've given too much of it away--but the anecdotal 
remark from Mike Sutton about the single flounce on one fall of WILD 
WINGS intrigues me.  It may have the same genetic factor present in 
its parent, Romantic Evening, that it too may be one of the non-
producers.  That chimeric fall flounce is suggestive.
> 
>   My own POWER WOMAN will be interesting to try with SA's.  It is 
from the BSE-showing Swingtown X the known non-producer, Romantic 
Evening.  It may be interesting to see which way the wind will be 
blowing with PW.  There are a number of its seedlings here that 
might be interesting as well, particularly with SOLAR FIRE.  The 
pigment combinations could be marvelous.
> 
>   The Keppel Luminatas may be fun.  They all have a lot of 
ancestry in common with the early SA's, so may be fertile 
potential.  SPIRIT WORLD, despite its puzzlingly difficult 
performance in some areas, is one that seems on the verge of being 
an SA itself, and gives some SA seedlings of merit.  I obtained 
DRAMA QUEEN and TELEPATHY last year to get a sampler of Keppel 
Luminata breeding to see how they like our mountain red gumbo and yo-
yo temperatures.  I don't want to set pods of them yet, but can use 
their pollens.
> 
>   What we're on the lookout for is a "normalizer" or "inhibitor" 
control factor present in some irises.  Such a factor would explain 
the appearance of SA's from non-SA parents, of which there have been 
several--not only Austin's.  SA's act like dominants in most crosses 
since the early breaks EXCEPT in the non-producing parents.  One 
might note the pedigree chart Mike Lowe has prepared on the HIPS 
website for THORNBIRD.
> 
>   We need to pinpoint and identify what is going on with these non-
producers, so the cross type is important!  It is in the F2 or back-
cross to SA's that the ratios get significant with those.  Please 
don't overlook making the crosses of this type.  The list of KNOWN 
non-producers is short, but ROMANTIC EVENING is one of them that 
many will have.  DYNAMITE is another.
> 
>   I'd be interested to hear the midnight musings of the rest of 
you.  What are you planning?  Hoping for?  Determined to try?
> 
>   Do I sound like I have Spring Fever?  Oh, do I ever!
> 
>   Neil Mogensen  z 7 western NC mountains
> 
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