HYBRIDIZING HINTS 
These notes are offered primarily for the new hybridizer, and they are in no way suggested 
as completely authoritative, since my findings may be quite different from those of other 
hybridizers, and surely this will be especially true where difference in climate is great. 
Each year | receive letters from friends and other hybridizers in which they mention of 
bloom late in the season, or after a rain, that they would like to have pollinated, but they 
had no suitable pollen. If one gathers pollen from the beginning of the season, or even has 
pollen sent to him from an earlier-blooming section, he will have pollen when needed. | have 
described the narrow pollen file | use—holding half sheets of typing paper, folded, to make 
open-topped envelopes in which pollen (on their stamens) is saved. Each envelope is filed 
chronologically, or in alphabetical order, making the pollen available at a moment's time. It is 
wise to gather this pollen from freshly opened flowers, but not until the pollen has ripened. 
It is not good to use capsules or waxed paper since these hold the moisture of the stamens and 
do not allow them to dry properly and the pollen grains are moistened and spoiled. Here is 
a sugestion, however, that might make for even quicker location of pollens from various 
colored flowers: yellow, brown, pink, blue or,white — use paper to match these colors. 
The Tweezers 
It is necessary to have a blunt pair of tweezers to remove the stamens from the flowers 
to be pollinated, or to gather the pollen, and these might be of several types, and some prefer 
the scissor-type without spring in them—making it easier to hold the stamens when pollinating. 
To these tweezers should be tied a long string which will hang around the neck, if one 
is to do much hybridizing—otherwise one is always looking for his tweezers in pocket or box, 
This is Virginia Clutton's suggestion, and | can vouch for its handiness. 
Making the Cross 
One should select parents with care. Haphazard crossing may result in something unusual, 
but in most cases only a lot of muddy or ordinary seedlings result, and the work involved is 
great—even for a small seedling plot. Some iris are great parents, and although old will still 
be useful for many years to come. Much can be accomplished by careful in-breeding or back- 
crossing to a given parent, and especially where we need some quality such as color, sub- 
stance, branching or height. It has been my experience the early blooms are the best for 
hybridizing since they have more vigor than the last blooms which will produce weak and small 
pods with very few seeds in them. Of course a fresh bloom should always be used. The best 
time for hybridizing is usually from one to three hours after the flower has opened; however, 
in the case of Wm. Mohr and other difficult parents, | have found it useful to open the buds 
an hour or two before they are due to open normally and pollinate the stigmas while they are 
tight and still moist—after they have dried out it is useless to put pollen on them, and in 
the case of Wm. Mohr | pollinate all three stigmas whereas with the more easy tall bearded 
plants one stimatic lip (found on each of the three style arms) is all that is necessary to 
pollinate; however, if the stigma is dry, wet (by rain or dew) or injured in any way one 
will want to pollinate one other stigma or if a take is especially wanted all three stigmas may 
be pollinated. 
Look to the Grandparents! 
In selecting the actual parents for a cross it is wise to look not only at the parents them- 
selves but also to the grandparents. For example, if breeding red iris, you may want to use 
that superbly finished Garden Glory so it would be wise to use a red parent to go with it that 
is wide of parts, and make sure its parents were the same—especially wide of falls, for Garden 
Glory comes from The Red Douglas and very often produces seedlings that are somewhat long 
and narrow:in falls. Varieties with Dominion blood will help to correct this fault of narrow- 
ness, but then you will have to watch out for reticulations or striations on the hatts. Dominion 
has been a great progenitor especially for “reds'’ and blues, although it may be found in the 
pedigree of many whites (Snowking), lovely blends (Midwest Gem, Matula) and even in pili- 
cates (Aldura) and other colors, including the coppers such as Radiant, Copper Glow, etc. One 
should be careful in the selection of parents for narrowness (not always undesirable, however, 
depending upon the actual beauty and form of the flower) may be difficult to breed out. You 
may expect narrowness in seedlings of: Naranja, Shining Waters, Melitza, Black Forest, and 
others, and surely the characteristic will show up in the second and third generation unless 
extreme care is used. Size, too, may be highly hereditary. Ola Kala, Jasper Agate, Orloff, 
Naranja, Overture, and Flora Zenor all have a tendency to produce small-tlowerd seedlings. 
One should select parents with size to offset this. As in the case of Flora Zenor its seedlings 
are usually small, plus a tendency toward the same dirty falls (purple and striations) byt its 
grandchildren and another generation beyond would more than likely improve; however, the 
work is great and there are other varieties on the market with decided improvement so one 
would be wasting his time, to a great extent, to breed with such a variety. 
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