Re: [SpaceAgeRobin] SA questions

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Thanks for your responses!  Our soil is definitely on the alkaline side here in Utah.  It sounds like that may or may not make a difference depending on variety. 
I'm glad that Chris is even able to grow irises that far north!  I didn't realize that the same one could have horns under stressful conditions like that when it might normally have flounces?  It must be nice to finally see good results after previously not having much luck. 
So, it sounds like SAGE a relatively new project?  Considering it takes a few years to see what the first crosses are even going to be like, it might take a while.  But, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor.  Hope my MESMERIZER performs next spring as well as yours did this year.
David


Chris Darlington <chrisdarlington@videotron.ca> wrote:

Hi David,

 

Welcome to the group.  I live in the North of Montreal, Canada in zone 4b but it seems like less than that most of the time.  It is normal to have very late Springs up here which doesn't give the Space Age Irises, or any Irises for that matter, much time to get ready for bloom season.  It seems like the appendages, ie horns, spoons, flounces & rosettes are the first thing to be sacraficed from a stressed plant.  This year was a good one and I got to see many flounces where in the past these plants only produced horns or nothing at all.  Some of my seedlings which showed no indication of having SA genes marvelously threw amazing long horns and in some cases, huge flounces, it was a real treat after having almost no success from my daubing efforts.  

 

Many of us are recreational hybridizers with a few professionals mixed in, you might want to give it a shot yourself if you have a little extra growing space in your garden.  

 

As for SAGE, I think it got off to a rocky start with many not being able to make the desired crosses due to severe rain storms, or not having the required plants bloom.  We had settled on a number of cultivars which we would use but we might need to review some of them because I have found HONEY SCOOP to be uninteresting as a breeder which also doesn't produce many, if any SA offspring.   

 

Plants that blew me away this year was MESMERIZER and REINCARNATION, they had appendages down to the very last bloom, something rarely seen here.

 

Chris

 

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