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Dwarf Iris Hybridizing Suggestions 
I believe that the breeding of the Dwarf 
Pearded Iris offers the greatest opportunity 
for results, of any perennial flower that 
we have today. 
The Tali Bearded Iris has reached a high 
standard of perfection within the past few 
years, but the little fellows are still in a 
state of relative obscurity when compared to 
them. 
Since the time of Caparne, who was prob- 
ably the first to hybridize them seriously, 
there has been very little work done with 
the Dwarfs. A few breeders have put out 
some varieties as a sort of side line but a 
serious attempt to improve them is not very 
evident. 
The Present Dwarf Type 
Until very recently all of the breeders 
have used the species chamaeiris almost 
entirely in their work, as evidenced by the 
fact that at least 90% of our present var- 
ieties are merely different forms of this 
species. 
The Sass brothers, who gave us most of 
the best of our modern varieties, used old 
Socrates and its seedlings, as did Burchfield, 
and Fryer and a few others. The result is 
that the color range is restricted to almost 
purple and pale yellows; they have numer- 
ous faults such as tucked under falls, narrow 
hafts, poor substance or they are not early 
enough or a little too tall and large for a 
Dwarf. 
The Tall Bearded were in just such a 
state of underdevelopment years ago until 
someone began to introduce the blood of 
other species and from that time on the Talls 
began to make strides. 
Species to be Used 
The answer to the Dwarf problem is ex- 
actly that and a few breeders are now be- 
ginning to show us glimpses of what we can 
expect in the near future. 
The species pumila seems to be the logical 
plant to use for the foundation work in 
developing the Dwarfs. 
acteristics which approch the ideal stand- 
ard. 
The Dwarf should be dwarf, it should 
be hardy, it should be early, it should have 
a flower in proportion to the plant, with a 
neat slim stem, with one terminal bud ta 
the stem, devoid of branching and with the 
bloom form, substance and texture of the 
quality comparable with the Tall Bearded. 
Pumila will give us the most important 
of these qualifications. It is the earliest of 
all, blooming sometimes the latter part of 
March and always by the early part of April. 
I sometimes think that is the mast import- 
ant characteristic of the Dwarfs, the main 
reason for their existence. Pumila is ex- 
tra hardy, always getting caught by snows 
and freezes and still giving us a grand dis- 
play of flowers. It is only about four to 
six inches in height, with a neat stem, one 
terminal bud, and adds new colors to our 
very restricted range. Pumila will throw 
some blues and near whites. At present 
our only blues are Coerulea and Azurea and 
both are pumila hybrids. Coerulea is in- 
fertile but Azurea will occasionally form 
seed. 
Hybrid Infertility Important 
This matter of hybrid infertility is the 
main reason for the fact that most of our 
Dwarfs are from Chamaeiris. The seedlings 
from one species will breed among them- 
selves but when you cross with another 
species they bring hybrids, with an entirely 
It has many char-_ 
By Walter Welch, Indiana. 
The following article was printed in one 
cur 1949 sisues and because of so many 
requests for copies , the supply of which 
is now exausted, we are printing it again. 
Mr. Welch is the outstanding Dwarf Iris 
authority in the country and his remarks 
and suggestions on this subject can bes 
considered very authorative. 
Sirce the original publication of this 
article many of our readers have gone into 
this work ard for those who have no out- 
let for hybrids that are worthy of iniro- 
duction, we have been maintaining trials 
for them with the final object of provid- 
ing an outlet. 
different genetic constitution, you will find 
that most of them will be infertile. How- 
ever if a large number of seedlings are 
grown, a few will be found that will set 
seed and have good pollen. By using these 
fertile seedlings, you will find that fertility 
will improve in the next generation, and 
once this infertility barrier is passed, you 
can go on with your work. 
I will not take the space here to explain 
the reason for such action but I wish to em- 
phasize the importance of carrying your 
breeding on to at least the second generat- 
ion, if you wish to get the best from your 
crosses, especially when using hybrids be- 
tween the species. 
To be brief, only the dominant character- 
isticc will show up in the first generation, 
but by crossing sister seedlings among them- 
selves, this next generation will give every 
possible combination of the various char- 
acterisics from both parents, if grown in 
large quantities. 
Iris Arenaria for Horizontal Falls 
The next most important species for Dwarf 
work is Arenaria. This is a very diminutive 
species, only four inches high when welt 
grown and usually only three under normal 
conditions. It has grassy foliage, a stem 
with two terminal buds, not branches, a 
flower of rich yellow with wide horizontal 
falls of heavy substance, slightly ruffled and 
with open standards. 
This species is important because it has 
horizontal falls with wide petals, which 
none of the other Dwarfs have, most of 
the others having tucked under falls, a bad 
fault. This character is dominant and all of 
the first generation seedlings will have hor- 
izontal falls. But they will also have open 
standards, another fault. 
Pumila has tucked falls and closed domed 
standards. In other words one species is 
good or strong where the other is bad. This 
makes an ideal cross for that reason. By 
crossing pumila on arenaria then crossing 
these seedlings with each other, making the 
second generation, the resultant seedlings 
should give some with the good character- 
istics of both parents. That is, there should 
be some with closed atsndards and horizont- 
al falls in the same plant. 
Arenaria Used for New Colors 
Arenaria also gives us some new colecrs. 
Although it is yellow. it throws some pinks 
and reds though not pure, they will needa 
further development. None of the other 
species has given reds or pink. 
Both Cook and Hill have done some 
work with Arenaria and have given us such 
varieties as Tampa, the reddest Dwarf and 
Keepsake, a yellow with horizontal falls, 
and Mist O’Pink, Tiny Treasure, Cream 
Tart, a pink No. 4300 from Cook that will 
surely give you the urge to try this species. 
Another species that has particular possib- 
ilities for new patterns in the Dwarf as well 
as new colors, is Mellita. This specied 
has sickle-shaped leaves, but this character 
is not dominant and its seedlings will show 
none, all having the type of the other parent. 
There is another form of Mellita called 
Rubro-marginata, which has the leaves edged 
with red, from which it gets its name. The 
flowers of these two forms are different 
Mellita being a sort of cream Amoena; the 
standards being light ivory and the falls 
darker with a buffish cast and with a border 
the color of the standards and a large fuzzy 
white beard. Rubro-marginata is a smoky 
red color, the falls blended with blue, purple 
and red, giving a very colorful appearance. 
The beard is brilliant dark purple. 
Whites Scarce in the Dwarfs 
Aside from this, both have some bad 
faults. The bloom shape is not too good, 
the standards going straight up, and too 
large for the falls, and the falls recurve bad- 
lv. The texture looks thin and transparent 
but in spite of their appearance the blooms 
take the weather and stand up well. 
Whites in the Dwarfs are scarce and of 
poor quality, most of them being disfigured 
with purple blotches and striations and all 
having an admixture of yellow giving them 
a greenish cast. Here should be a worthy 
project for your consideration. 
In breeding for whites, it seems that blues 
have a tendency of bleaching out the yellow 
color, eliminating the purple anthocyanin. 
By using a blue form of Pumila or the 
Pumila hybrid Azurea and crossing onto one 
of the near whites such as Bride or Little - 
Elsa, one should get much improvement in 
both dlues and whites. Then in the next 
generation cross whites with white and blue 
with blue and select for color, regardless 
of other qualities. 
To accomplish the greatest improvement 
ene should breed for one thing at a time. 
If you are breeding for color select the best 
color and forget the other qualities, these 
can be later taken care of by further crosses 
for , those characteristics. One should be 
carrying along a line for bloom form, anoth- 
er for color and others for other qualities; 
then when improvement in any one line is 
satisfactory, it should be crossed with plantg 
from the other lines and carried to the 
second generation. 
. 
Chromosomes differ in Dwarf Breeding 
Those familiar with the Tall Bearded will 
know that they can get almost the complete 
range of characteristics in the first generat- 
ion. This is due to the fact that their 
blood has become so mixed that all are 
more or less related. Not so with the 
Dwarfs, because you are working with or 
near the species and the blood is more pure 
and therefore the chromosomal difference 
i$ greater. 
To get back to Mellita, its seedlings give 
a wide range of colors and patterns and it 
seems to be influenced strongly by the part- 
icular parent used with it. A cross of 
Fragrance on Mellita gave several good pur- 
plish blues, good selfs, and one all white, 
even to the beard, with no markings of any 
other color; but all had the flower shape 
and texture of Mellita. 
In another cross of Tony on Mellita came 
a good near Amoena, the standards almost 
white and the falls purple, with border 
the color of the standards. From this crosg 
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