THE HYBRIDIZER’S CORNER 
Almost everyone who has been growing Iris for some time eventually 
gets the desire to try growing some from seed. There are many garden- 
ers who would like to try their hand at hybridizing. You can do it 
with little trouble whether your ambition is to produce a fine new 
hybrid or just to see exactly what will happen when two varieties are 
crossed. It takes a little patience. The seed is harvested in August and 
planted the same fall and the seedling will sprout the following spring. 
It will take this seedling another full year’s growth to reach flowering 
size. If your interest has been piqued and you feel you would like to 
try raising some seedlings consider first what desirable qualities you 
would Jike to see combined and then search your garden for the two 
best plants you consider will best qualify. The actual mechanics of 
applying the pollen is simple. Note the illustration of Campfire Glow 
on page 28. The projecting anther is bearing a good supply of yellow 
pollen. This is applied on the upper side of the blue-like lip just 
above the anther. You will note a sort of hairy texture to this lip 
that is slightly sticky. Apply the pollen here. Apply on all three 
stigmas of a flower that has opened the same morning preferably. 
Then mark the particular pod with a tag with the record of your 
pollen and seed parents. 
The matter of choice of parents is interesting and fascinating. In 
fact their choice is of extreme importance. In making your crosses 
do not attempt too wide a cross. That is, between widely dissimilar 
flowers. Particularly if you desire to continue the color of one or the 
other parents. For instance, you will soon observe that to develop and 
raise fine white Iris your best results will come from the use of whites 
mated with other white Iris varieties or whites crossed with blues or 
the light cream yellows. Two of our white Iris have very interesting 
parentage. White Tower is the result of a cross of Snow Carnival 
crossed with a white seedling derived from (Winter Carnival x a pale 
lavender seedling). Note how white figures in the ancestry each time. 
One of the finest white varieties is New Snow whose parentage is (Snow 
Flurry x Katherine Fay). Both are whites. Or, take a case of a white 
crossed a blue as gave Lady Boscawen, a white, and a sister seedling, 
the famous Helen McGregor, a blue. Their ancestry is (Purissima x 
Cloud Castle). The selection of good whites for parental stock is noted 
in these fine studs, all which should yield fine seedlings. Helen Mc- 
Kenzie and Spanish Peaks for pure whites. Two with gold would be 
Winter Carnival and Admiral Nimitz. Or are you interested in trying 
for something different? To show how a color will show up unex- 
pectedly, the tangerine-red beard on our new Gay Lavinia was a sur- 
prise. The cross was made aiming for flamingo-pinks. The parentage 
is a white Schreiner seedling from (Inspiration x (SQ72 x Matula) 
crossed with Cherry Flip. A special note should be made of Snow 
Flurry (Purissima x Thais). When crossed with blue it gave us first, 
when we used Chivalry, the fine Iris Blue Sapphire, and when crossed 
with Sylvia Murray it gave us our new Blue Hawaii! Further, when 
crossed with Golden Eagle, the fine cream Desert Song arose. So far 
a striking white with the blue beard of Black Forest has not been 
offered, but it is possible! 
BLUES 
There is a two-pronged avenue in developing finer blue Iris—the use 
of whites with whites and the use of whites with blues. The further 
refinement of the blues can come using such superb varieties as we now 
have available, such as Cahokia, Helen McGregor, Jane Phillips, Blue 
Rhythm, Chivalry and Distance. Our new Harbor Blue, a 1954 intro- 
duction, arose from the combination of Quicksilver (Chivalry x Dis- 
tance) mated with Jane Phillips, a combination of three distinct 
blue-blood lines. Two whites when mated will give a blue, at times, 
as in the case of Azure Skies (Crystal Beauty x Snowking). A shade or 
two deeper in the blues, approaching the marine shades, there are 
some handsome subjects: Danube Wave (Anitra x Narain) and Blue 
Valley (Lake George x Great Lakes) are good examples. Blending the 
deepest colored violets with the light blues results in an Iris like 
Midnight Blue (Black Forest x Chivalry) and other mid and marine 
blues. Since we are getting these new near blacks it offers a good 
chance to cross these with white for the improvement of this class 
as well. 
PLICATAS 
Here is a color class that is inherited as a recessive character. An 
unequaled chance to use Iris of many colors is certainly responsible 
for the endless and surprising variations which result. Our efforts have 
been pointed in two main directions. We want to select families that 
have definite, not washy markings, preferably with a nice amount of 
white ground in the center, as in Raspberry Ribbon and Bright Con- 
trast, and yellow plicatas that have a solid yellow background as Frolic 
and Dancing Tiger. The breeding of Bright Contrast is quite inter- 
esting. It came from a cross of over 300 sisters all of which were 
plicatas arising from (Beau Ideal x Wasatch) x (Helaine x Tarantella). 
This seedling then was crossed with the pollen of Minnie Colquitt and 
yielded Bright Contrast. The blue-marked plicatas embrace the fine 
group of Blue Shimmer, Aldura, Blue Rim and new Caroline Jane. 
In the yellow background plicatas we have been particularly fortunate 
in getting two seedlings with complete yellow background. They are 
Frolic (Firecracker x (Magic Carpet x Tiffany) and Dancing Tiger 
from the same general blood lines. We referred last year to our 
Page 52 
seedling of (Raspberry Ribbon x Harlequin). This has proven so nice 
we feel it necessary to propagate stock so that we will have enough 
to go around when we offer it. We hope to name it Bazaar. Its part- 
ner (Rodeo x Frolic) we think is the finest yellow plicata seedling we 
have raised or seen elsewhere. We want to observe it one more season. 
AMOENAS 
Were it not for the cross of (Extravaganza x Wabash) this entire 
color class would be at a standstill. Gaylord is of this parentage as 
are brand new seedlings Mr. Knowlton has obtained in Massachusetts 
and Mr. Brummit in England. There is a hope that somehow a break- 
out will occur in this class. Maytime is a striking example of another 
amoena approach that is different and distinct. Its parentage is (Shan- 
nopin x Pathfinder). With Bright Hour the blue two-toned Helen 
Collingwood (Extravaganza x Louise Blake) and Lothario (Mme. M. 
Lassailly x Winneshiek) we more or less have the cornerstone material 
to use in this class. The surprising break and advent of Pinnacle, 
along with its two sisters, Summit and Mystic Melody, offers new 
potentialities. When bred to amoenas they will yield some light toned 
amoenas. Think of the wonderful infusion of new blood lines, and 
the color genes that await refinement. We will again observe a Pin- 
nacle derivative crossed with a seedling of (Majenica x Pink Reflec- 
tion) this year. We think it is one of the most significant develop- 
ments along this line and await its blooming again most eagerly. 
BLACKS 
Every breeder seems to get a ‘‘break’’ of some kind if he experiments 
for some time with various crosses. Black Forest has been one of our 
more fortunate breaks. Its size is not the largest but its qualities have 
practically every breeder working with the very dark Iris. Our aims 
in using Black Forest have been to improve its size and height as well 
as its branching and yet not lose the fine luster and depth it possesses. 
Tabu (Black Forest x Storm King) along with Storm Warning (Down 
East x Black Forest) and Black Castle (sister to Black Forest x Down 
East) are some examples of the dark Iris we are offering, the result of 
selecting from over eight thousand seedlings raised in a three-year 
period. Last year and again this year some third generation work of 
these first crosses will bloom. We are anxious to see results. Some 
Storm King seedlings that flowered last May had us excited. Paul 
Cook has developed some exceptionally fine dark Iris. His Sable is 
well known and we have used it. Also Indiana Night (Valor x Sable) 
is another fine parent. His new Sable Night (Indiana Night x Modoc, 
x Sable) in a way approaches a back cross. Our Velvet Dusk is a seed- 
ling of Sable derivation and it, like most of the Sable seedlings, tends 
to give a slight red cast to the dark coloring. Congo (Ethiop Queen x 
Velvet Dusk) a 1953 introduction, shows this reddish approach as well. 
To build up intensification of colors, deeper colors must be bred to- 
gether and while we are bringing in new blood via outcrosses to other 
Iris like Snow Flurry and Chivalry, the loss of intensity is such that 
it often takes two generations to recover the color saturation these 
deep colored Iris have. 
REDS 
A lot of Iris news was made in the Red class this past season. We 
feel particularly proud to have the chance ‘to purchase the stock of 
Trim, Mr. McKee’s fine new red Iris. Iris folks will recall its fine 
showing at the Boston meeting. There are two or three main lines 
in the development of red Iris. Mr. Lapham and Mr. Cook, near 
neighbors in Indiana, have developed individual lines of great interest. 
Pacemaker is being used extensively by both breeders and it has given 
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