[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

Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
click here
Web Bug from http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=298184.6191685.7192823.3001176/D=groups/S=:HM/A=2593423/rand=557439337

Yahoo! Groups Links
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index