large and tall—one parent used with it was Down East. | have a rather good sized one—not 
too bad for color from Black Forest x After Midnight, but | look on it only as a breeder's iris. 
Night Lite has the quality I'd like in a tall, well branched "black," but then | would want to 
put black in the style arms and the beard—and make the falls flare as Night Spot's do. Sable 
is still good, but we hear reports on Paul Cook's newer seedlings that indicate an advance in 
this color class. Storm King, Ethiope Queen, Tenaya, Ebony Queen and that charming Black 
Forest are al good and will surely have a place in breeding this color. We hear some good 
reports from several hybridizers, including Dr. Loomis, with seedlings from Elmohr x Sable. 
The Pinks 
A few years back it was all big pink blends like Remembrance, even Morocco Rose, Lan- 
caster, or Amitola. These are now relegated to their proper color class in the blends, for these 
all had considerable yellow in their makeup. Pink Satin or even Pink Ruffles (a delightful iris) 
are no longer considered pink, of course, for the pinks are here with the arrival of Dr. Loomis’ 
break Sea Shell and David Hall's Flamingo pinks which all stem from Morocco Rose—so these 
lines can be considered quite closely related, and because of this the cross | made to produce 
Pink Formal and Pink Tower was just a continuation of their fine work and shows further line 
breeding. Surely a good break and one | bless both Dr. Loomis and David Hall for every day. 
| have told you before of the shell pink break | had No. 44-67 a small salmon-pink sister to 
Gold Ruffles. Now, here was pallida, varigata and mesopotamica blood, so where did the color 
come from? Who knows? | have thought mesopotamica (or Ricardi) probably played the im- 
portant part, however, each of the breaks producing these new pinks with the tangerine beard 
have had |. pallida blood—in fact Mr. Wareham's ''Gold Fish'' was a pallida (24 Chromosomes) 
pure and simple—this one has ''the beard’ associated with these breaks. | produced one light 
pink from Morocco Rose x Chosen. Morocco Rose, of course, being a half sister to Sea Shell 
is a known carrier of the tangerine beard and will produce this color and orchid pinks with 
"that beard'’ when bred to the right iris. Mount Washington will breed this color, so is a carrier 
of the tangerine beard—it is the parent to Tom Craig's new Peach Parfait. | have not thought 
a great deal of either Melitza's or Flora Zenor's children, however, last year there appeared 
among my seedlings a deep true pink from S. Q. 72 x Flora Zenor that on not too close inspection 
was a great pink garden subject, but its falls were as dirty as Flora's, however, to go another 
generation | crossed Pink Formal on it. The Lost Chord pink | produced from Gold Ruffles x 
45-64-1 A: Alice Harding x Dr. Loomis’ Type Dore—a Sea Shell seedling was crossed, as | told 
you in 1947, with Pink Formal—the resulting seedlings mostly all bloomed in 1949—one of 
which seemed to fill my every requirement for a PINK iris and it was without increase—being 
high on a ridge, but to carry on the color and form | used its pollen freely and set three pods 
on it—and late in the fall there appeared one tiny increase—you can imagine the handsprings 
| turned, but at this writing | am not sure if it has survived the long winter. If it has lived | 
hope to share it with you iris lovers as soon as possible. | may, anyway, put one or two of its 
sisters out for breeding—these were all large—several of them as large as Wm. A. Setchell, 
some lacked depth of color, but they had tine form—wide petals and good branching, and sur- 
prisingly excellent increase—some of the rhizomes 8 to 10 inches long with increase eyes all along 
the ''toe.'' There was one sister 49-I| just as deep in color as the new “lost Chord," 49-11 C, 
but it has a bit of dirt in the falls. These were all used for breeding. | have not found the dark 
pink blends such as Matula or Daybreak to be very useful with the shell pinks—at least not in the 
first generation, but next generation—when crossed with pinks the pink color comes forth—very 
often giving their grandchildren fine form, good branching and smoothness, coloring—or depth 
of color. We must seek out these rich colors to intensify the pinks, | believe, although much 
can be done by careful line breeding or in-breeding. Hybrid vigor is brought in, however, by 
the introduction of new blood. The wise breeder looks not to the first generation alone, but to 
the second, third or even later generations. A careful study of Paul Cook's Sable or Lancaster 
pedigree, or David Hall's pinks will bear this out as will, surely, the careful work of those 
remarkable pioneers Hans and Jacob Sass—both of whom are now gone, but their work remains 
a monument to their memories, for there is scarcely a notable new iris which does not trace 
back to their fine work. A great majority of my iris owe their origin to the work of the Sasses, 
and we bless other hybridizers like Foster, Dykes, and Bliss of England; Mohr, Mitchell, Grace 
Sturtevant, Williamson, Kirkland, Salbach, White, Essig, Thorup, Whiting, and Kleinsorge, for all 
have contributed greatly to modern iris. There are other hybridizers coming on the horizon whose 
work will soon figure into this ever growing army of hybridizers. | believe the work of K. Smith, 
Nesmith, McKee, Fay, Craig, Taylor, Larsen, Rees, DeForest, Lapham, D. Hall, Loomis, Tompkins, 
and others will go down in iris history as great contributors to our wonderful flower. 
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