Those Pinks 
Great interest is centered on the breeding of pinks these days. As | have mentioned before 
one of the truly great parents for this color is Golden Eagle. Coming from Prairie Sunset as one 
parent, and stemming as well from W. R. Dykes, Dolly Madison and Morocco Rose, it has great 
posibilities. One may expect lovely shades of Salmon-pink and Orange-pink (perhaps because of 
the blood of Prairie Sunset) as well as true pinks. It might be well to mention here that Dr. 
Loomis' Morocco Rose and his first Shell pink (Sea Shell) are half-sisters—both stemming 
from one parent (F 70, which is out of W. J. Fryer x Ricardi). Undoubtedly Ricardi may be 
the influence here for the pink color as well as the tangerine beard. | produced a light shell 
pink from Chosen (which is Purissima, Mirasol and Rubeo blood), crossed with Morocco Rose. 
Here Purissima as well as Mirasol carry that "'mesopotamica" (Ricardi, a form of Mesopotamica). 
blod. And now Thomas Craig tells us that Mount Washington (also a mesopotamica derivative) 
is useful in the breeding of these pink-bud iris. Undoubtedly Melitza carries this same blood, for 
it is of "tender" origin and shows this in itself as well as its seedlings. It is unfortunate that we 
do not know the breeding of W. R. Dykes, but it, too, must surely stem from mesopotamica or 
Ricardi blood. Both Happy Days and sister seedling isabellina carry this blood of mesopotamica 
and are useful toward pink breeding; however, Isabellina has such poor substance its usefulness 
may not be great, for although some of its seedlings have fair substance the majority of its 
grandchildren (at least for me) have been like tissue paper and melt almost before they are 
open—in fact, some few seedlings never did open properly. While Golden Eagle hasn't the 
greatest substance it seems to have the happy trait of giving its children good substance as 
well as great vigor of growth and increase. Golden Eagle has one trait that must be guarded 
against and that is weak branches (side-stems) and when breeding Golden Eagle one should 
make sure to stake all stalks that are to bear pods for the wind will often blow its stalks to 
the ground. Using Golden Eagle as a pod parent, | crossed it with pollen of Dr. Lommis' S. Q. 72 
(which unfortunately | have no record of except that | know it is a seedling of Sea Shell) and 
this variety has a tall stalk with strong branches—the resulting seedlings were nearly all strongly 
branched; however, several seedlings had collapsible branches, and these were destroyed at 
once. From this cross, Pink Tower and Pink Formal resulted, and one could not ask for better 
stalks. Pink Formal has the deepest of color and seems to be the finest kind of pollen parent— 
giving its children great depth of color as well as good substance and fine-branched stalk. 
Spindrift is proving a splendid parent for pinks, and its grandchildren are, in most cases, vast 
improvements—having tall, well branched stalks as well as size and clarity of color. | have used 
Golden Eagle with Spindrift to good advantage. Pink Salmon is from this cross and it, in turn, 
is proving a splendid parent—giving height (perhaps from Morocco Rose and Golden Eagle 
blood) to its children. One of the finest new pinks | bloomed last season came from a seedling, 
45-22 A (Lancaster x Hall's 42-10), a big yellow crossed with a sister seedling of Pink Formal 
and Pink Tower 46-22 B. This is a heavily ruffled deep pink with good branching. Its number 
is 48-69. We can see from this that there is considerable line-breeding since Hall's 42-10 is a 
seedling of Golden Eagle; however, there is some out-breeding in the use of Lancaster, and 
although there were not many pinks in the cross this one was superb. Close in-breeding among 
pinks, or any other color, where the substance may be poor or the size small, will get one no- 
where; we must bring in new blood for vigor, size, and substance (of course this is just a 
theory of my own founded on my limited experience). 
The Blues 
We have a long way to go, yet, to reach the goal of a true blue. Helen McGregor is a 
beautiful light blue, but it fades in hot sun to white. Azure Skies retains its color quite well 
as so many others, but they are not true blue. Blue Valley approaches blue, yet it retains much 
of the texture-veining of its parent, Great Lakes, and this detracts from the flower, as does this 
same veining in Esquire, Lake Shannon and Great Lakes, but the latter is one of the finest 
of parents. Walter Welch used Great Lakes on a seedling of his (a sister to Halleluiah: Gudrun x 
Easter Morn) with astounding results—the texture veining was not present, Blue Rhythm is of 
the deeper shade of blue and one of the best. It should prove a remarkable parent, as perhaps 
will Chivalry, Sylvia Murray, Azure Skies, and others. Parents proven in this color Are Purissima 
Gloriole, Lake George, Blue Spire, Mary Clotilde, Mountain Sky, Sparkling Frost, Blue Zenith, 
The Admiral, Shining Waters, and others. Coming on the horizon are Pierre Menard and Cahokia 
(sister seedlings) stemming from Purissima and Santa Barbara blood. Mirror Lake has given me 
some splendid new seedlings, as have some from Anitra x Great Lakes—these without texture 
veining, and, by the way, Anitra should be a fine blue parent—it is like Purissima in that it 
sets seed with ease. The hybrids from Purissima x Capitola—Peg Debagh, Morning Blue and 
Biue Elegance — may change our concept of flower form, and from these may come beter 
blues, if they will prove easy parents. bisa? i. 
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