THE HYBRIDIZER'S 
CORNER 
Growing Iris is a venture which presents many interesting and varied 
facets. There is the abiding pleasure and satisfaction in creating a gar- 
den with bright masses of color, a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. 
There is the appeal to the collector who is interested in obtaining new 
and rare developments in Iris just as a collector of stamps or coins 
prizes a rare addition to his collection. Iris with their extreme diversity 
in color and type offer a field of unusually wide scope be it for the 
home gardener or the collector. There remains still a third facet in 
Iris growing and the devotees of this phase probably become the most 
rabid and enthusiastic of all the groups. They are the Iris hybridizers 
and it is their keen interest and constant endeavor in developing new 
and better Iris that has given us the fine Iris of today. It is to these 
experimenters that the Iris owes its preeminent position in the garden- 
ing world today. 
Creating something new and better in the plant world thru hy- 
bridizing is a fascinating hobby in itself. There is no mystery to cross- 
ing and breeding Iris. By following the methods suggested here and 
by a little experimentation you can obtain pleasing results. If your 
interest is further whetted you can obtain additional information on 
Plant Genetics from your library. It’s a fascinating world and the hours 
you spend with this hobby will be among the most rewarding of your 
leisure hours. 
How do you hybridize Iris? Not by a hit or miss crossing of any 
two varieties that happen to be in flower on the same day as an un- 
initiate might do. Study the flowers in your garden and in your mind’s 
eye set a standard of what you desire to achieve and select two parents 
cach of which has some of the characters you would like to see com- 
bined in a more perfect plant. If you desire an improved blue with 
the branching and stem of Lady Boscawen then combine Jane Phillips 
for its fine color with Lady Boscawen for resulting seedlings that will 
have the fine stem habit of Lady Boscawen. The actual operation of 
transferring the pollen from one flower to another is mechanically 
quite simple. Note the illustration on this page of Campfire Glow. Ob- 
serve the cream-yellow anther of pollen just above the beard. This is 
the pollen and may be picked and applied to the stimatic lip on this 
flower (this is known as selfing) or applied to other flowers. The 
place to apply pollen is on the lip, which you can see very clearly in 
this illustration. It is the sort of lavender-blue lip running at right 
angles to the anther. The pollen is applied to the top side, not 
the side of the flower which shows in the illustration. This lip has a 
rough surface and a slight honey-like exudation that helps the pollen 
to cling here. In applying pollen, use fresh pollen, or pollen that has 
been kept dry indoors and apply it to fresh flowers, generally those 
that have opened for the first day. After you have applied your pollen 
to all three stimatic lips, mark the flower you have so crossed with 
a tag or any marking that will identify this particular cross for you 
when it forms the seed pod. You will find some Iris do not yield 
pollen yet will bear seed and the reverse is true as well. Remember 
not every cross will yield a pod (or take). When it does you may 
expect from a few seeds to as many as 40 or 50 seeds per pod. Plant 
these in September, one inch deep, outdoors and allow the winter to 
stratify them. You will find your Iris seedlings will germinate the 
following spring. Reset seedlings from seed bed at 4 to 6 leaf stage. 
You can expect bloom from these babies (seedlings) in 2 or at the 
most 3 years if given good culture. 
The pure white Iris and the blue Iris are both closely related. So 
these two colors can be crossed with the normal expectancy of getting 
good flowers in each of these two colors. In contrast a wide cross of 
unrelated material is more apt to give odd and diffused colors. The 
entire series of Iris originations of Dr. Graves, both blues and whites 
should be considered. For purity of tone there is Helen MacKenzie 
and for all around vigor and growing qualities Lady Boscawen, a full 
sister of the famous blue, Helen McGregor, should be considered. Also 
the importance of New Snow cannot be overemphasized. With a fine 
heritage for a rigid, well poised stem and flowers with substance and 
fluted ruffle it will give charm and quality to its seedlings whether 
mated to whites, blues, light pinks or even some of the darker colors. 
Spanish Peaks, along with Helen McKenzie, will figure in any attempt 
to produce pure whites without haft markings of any kind. In mating 
these with blues, if you desire a pure white, be certain not to choose 
any blue that has a haft marking of a heavier color as this will show 
up in yellow throats on white seedlings. The whitest white with the 
heaviest substance of all is White Tower, an imposing, promising new 
parent. Admiral Nimitz is another of this color and mention should 
be made of Winter Carnival, the perfume scented white. Do not over- 
look, likewise, the possibility of combining the whites with the yellows 
for the development of fine cream colored Iris whose importance in the 
garden along with the whites and yellows cannot be overstressed. What 
have we to look forward to? The advent of white Iris with tangerine- 
red beard arising from crosses with the flamingo-pinks. And the evolve- 
ment of blue bearded white Iris. Think what a picture a white Iris 
with the beard of Black Forest would present! We should mention a 
word or two about Snow Flurry, while slightly tender in the north, 
it adds to the possibilities of Iris development with a rigid, branched 
stem, classical poise and a revolute fluting to its petals to pass on to its 
children. Note these laudable qualities in New Snow and Desert Song, 
Page 48 
CAMPFIRE GLOW 
derived from Snow Flurry. Breeders are still making important use 
of this epochal variety. 
BLUES 
Finer blues are being developed right along. Do keep in mind a 
liberal admixture of white Iris can be done to the benefit of both 
colors. Here we have some outstanding varieties. Varieties whose in- 
trinsic value is so great they leave their stamp on succeeding genera- 
tions. Great Lakes is one such variety. The newer Blue Rhythm for all 
around good qualities can find few Iris to equal it. A wonderful ram- 
rod stem and fine growth and vigor. In acquiring a stud of the finer 
blue Iris my selection would include Helen McGregor, for its charm 
and fluting, and its newer descendent Jane Phillips, which looks as if 
it were proving the key to even finer blues. Distance, for its valuable 
crisp qualities and different ancestry, Cahokia for its serene sky-blue 
color. A shade or two deeper, the regal Chivalry along with its part- 
ners Danube Wave and Blue Valley. All contribute invaluably to the 
depth and breath of our prismatic scale. Interestingly Pierre Menard, 
the darker colored sister of Cahokia, yields fairly light colored seedlings 
while the rich Blue Ensign with its trim bearing carries our tonal 
value of depth into its seedlings very well. One feature that needs par- 
ticular attention in crossing blues is the aim to obtain smoother 
colored flowers. Generally, do not use two plants as parents that both 
show the presence of sap or structural veins to any great degree. 
PLICATAS 
Here is a class that has endless possibilities in variation and colora- 
tion. The pattern of stitching is a recessive character and so in your 
attempts to raise plicata seedlings be sure that both your pollen and 
your seed parent are either plicatas or are themselves seedlings of pli- 
catas. The finest blue plicata parents available here are Blue Shimmer 
and Aldura and their seedling, Blue Rim. Some very fine work has 
been done by crossing these plicatas with blues and taking the 
resulting blue seedlings and crossing them with plicatas like Blue 
Shimmer again to recover the recessive pattern with some of the char- 
acteristics of their pure blue parent. In darker tones Minnie Colquitt 
and the rich silvery rose, Confetti have given both a variety of color 
and crispness not often associated with this class. Harlequin, the un- 
usual, is proving to be an exceptionally fine parent. One cross we 
made with Raspberry Ribbon has yielded some exceptional plicatas, one 
which we will have ready for release in 1954. For the yellow background 
plicatas, Firecracker has proven very effective. It, along with Magic 
Carpet and Rodeo, adds both the color and sparkle of gold to this color 
class. Clarity of color, refinement and a pleasant pattern have been our 
constant endeavor in this line. 
