Beginner's Luck
Al Roderick of Farmington, Missouri
Excitement starts at sunrise when you're a pollen dauber. From the time you see the bloom stalks swell in the foliage until the last bloom folds, it's a thrill. Each morning, I can hardly wait to get in the seedling patch to see what surprises Mother Nature has in store for me.
My purpose in hybridizing is to enjoy the fun and excitement of creating something new and to improve the species. I do not go about it scientifically, only the mental and visual expectations from selected parents. I keep exact breeding records and have developed breeding lines in blue, yellow and pink. Although plicatas have always been my favorites, I have never made any plicata crosses. Perhaps I will, now that I have the time and space to expand my hybridizing program.
I am presently only working with tall bearded and border bearded. In past years, I averaged growing about 250 to 500 seedlings because of the limited time to make the crosses and limited space to grow them. It is not necessary to grow thousands of seedlings to get results from your efforts. It only takes one cross to produce that "Dykes" winner. My first crosses were made in 1970 and from those, I introduced Ruffled Ballet, Moody Blue and Mellow Yellow in 1975 with a total of 21 introductions to date. (Editors Note: Ruffled Ballet won the "Dykes" in 1983).
My advice to anyone who is considering hybridizing is to first decide on a goal. What do you want to accomplish or work toward? You can then direct your efforts in that direction. That will also determine to a large degree which varieties you cross and which seedlings you select to keep and work with. For a small hybridizer, it's impossible to work with everything. You may want to work with blacks, pinks with blue beards, reds, plicatas, improve existing colors, work with other types such as medians, standard dwarfs, etc. Regardless which area you work with, there will be many surprises along the way. Even after you set your goal, it may be illusive or you may get sidetracked after you see which direction your hybridizing takes you.
How you select parentage will be the most important decisions of your hybridizing career. It will determine your success or failure and whether you continue or lose interest. Use the very newest varieties available to start. Tremendous advancements have been made in the last 10 years and if you start with varieties that are 20 years old, your seedlings will be 20 years behind already. Keep in mind that before a variety is introduced, it is already five years old and has already produced seedlings for its hybridizer. However, there are exceptions. Some of the older varieties, used with the right partners, produce excellent seedlings of modern age. I still use Ruffled Ballet and Sheer Poetry as they both pass on those wide hafts and ruffles which are so popular today.
So how do you decide on parents? Keep in mind the standard of today's introductions. Visit other hybridizers gardens and seedlings to see what is already being produced. Compare your seedlings. You may go home and start over. Since wide ruffled falls are popular, I do not use varieties that are narrow at the haft and are tailored. I try to select parents that have good branching and bud count, although that may not always show up in an excellent seedling. Select varieties that have good substance that will hold up in adverse weather conditions and will not fade in hot sun. Use varieties that are hardy and grow good in your area and do not have to be pampered to get good results. These traits are easily passed on to seedlings both good and bad. For an example, many of the California hybridized varieties do not grow well here in the Midwest and are not reliably hardy. Our winters are harsh with fluctuating temperatures and no snow cover. Unless you cross them with hardy varieties, your seedlings may lack the vigor to pull them through the winter without protection. I do not coddle seedlings but let nature eliminate the weak ones for me. Do not select two parents with the same fault, such as floppy standards, poor branching, narrow falls or poor substance, etc. That will usually compound the fault and will usually be difficult to overcome. If you do select a parent with an obvious fault, cross it with a variety that is strong in the particular area and hope the good characteristic will be strong enough to express itself in the seedlings.
Do not expect to reach your goal in the first generation of seedlings, although if you use the right parents, you may get excellent results with your first crosses. You may need to cross seedlings together or cross them back to the parents in order to advance your goal. The genetic pool of today's iris is so complex, I would venture to say that it would be almost impossible to predict the outcome of a particular cross.
I would not throw away the best seedlings from a particular cross even though they were not introduction material. If they are from two good parents, they contain the genetic background of both parents and have the potential to throw the best characteristics of either parent if they are crossed with each other. Don't be afraid to repeat a cross. A cross can be made a hundred times and all of the seedlings will be genetically different even if they resemble each other.
I like to make my crosses from 10 am to noon before the pollen dries. I use only freshly opened blooms and cross both ways, all the flowers that are open. I mark the cross with a string tag with the pollen parent only. If the cross is successful, I record the pod parent when I pick the pod. I break off the standards and falls of the pollinated bloom when it starts to fold to help prevent rot if the pod develops. I also strip away all foliage from the stalk so surplus water will not catch in the leaves and rot the stalk. I also stake the stalk to prevent wind damage. Established plants usually set seed better than first year plants. First year plants will usually not grow off as vigorously if seed pods are set on them.
Sometimes even if you do everything right, you are still doomed for failure. Several years ago, I had planned to make a particular cross for some time but something always prevented me from getting a good pod. The cross didn't take, season too wet, pod would rot on the stalk, always something. Finally one season I did manage to get a nice big pod to form and grow on the very top of the stalk. Mid-June came, the baseball season started and a neighbor teenager who lived up the street came down to play catch with our son Greg. After a while, his mother called him home. The shortest route was through the iris garden. When Doug passed the iris stalk with that big pod perched on top of it, he automatically reached down, with no hesitation, picked it off and sent if flying through the air, never realizing what he had done. I didn't have the heart to tell him and decided to give up on that particular cross. The pod was never found. Such is the life of a hybridizer!
Remove the pods when they start to split, usually in late July or early August. The seeds are shelled out of the pod and let dry in an open container for about a week and then sorted in envelopes at room temperature until late October when they are planted outside in open ground about an inch deep. Bricks or boards are placed over the rows and left on until germination starts in early spring, usually around mid-March. When the seedlings are about six inches tall, they are transplanted in the garden in rows. I try to get them transplanted by June 1st before the spring rains stop. It's important to keep them growing vigorously through the summer because usually all those that show increase by fall will bloom the following spring -- usually about 50 to 60%. After two years, all seedlings are discarded except those selected, even those that did not bloom because usually they are not vigorous enough to keep.
In seedling selection, I look for improvements over the parents, uniqueness, something different, color, progress towards my goal, even slight. I am very selective in the seedling patch. Those that are selected are lined out and grown for at least two more seasons before final selection. Seedlings change after the first year, sometimes dramatically. Some improve, others fall apart. Some you will wonder why you saved them. The year I selected Star Wars and Royal Viking from a cross of Ruffled Ballet X Navy Strut, I couldn't make a decision on at least a dozen seedlings out of the cross. They were all lined out, but the following year it was apparent which ones were the best.
Many of the newer varieties introduced in the 80's are of such good quality, that by merely crossing two named varieties together, one could easily come up with some excellent seedlings in the first generation. However, by developing your own breeding lines, it gives you the advantage of having access to a genetic pool that no one else has and increases the potential of creating something unique and different.
I encourage everyone to make just one cross and experience the joy and excitement of creation.
(Reprinted from Region 7 "Irisarian" Newsletter, 1990-1991)