Well, I have recovered a little from the killer respiratory something (flu?) that took me down for the count last week. Still not okay, but better.
So I thought you might like to know how I got some of my seedlings and I had a few that the parentage was pretty easy to list.
This first one is the rare IB that I have done. I crossed an SDB with pollen from a TB for this.
What I am trying to say there that it is rarely that I have done an IB.

N8-19-5: Tweety Bird X Power Surge

While Ben Johnson and I were comparing notes a little bit on the 'turquoise' thread, it crossed my mind that maybe a few of you might have an interest in what goes into some of these. I won't bore you with a lot of them , but here is a few for those who might have an interest. If you don't, you can just look at the pics and ignore the rest.

K1-20-A: ((Rippling Rose x Laced Cotton) x Spin Doctor sib) X Select Circle


Here is a sibling from the same seed pod which I think I posted on the earlier thread. But this will show you what can come from the same cross.
K1-20-B

this is a most interesting seedling in that it makes a habit of sending up two or even three bloom stalks from one rhizome. Even better, each of those stalks is heavily branched a budded. You can imagine a clump effect with that. This is the first to bloom every year and one of my 'rebloomer' friends in Indy is growing it with hopes for something in that direction because of it's very early blooming characteristic in addition to the stalks and buds and plant vigor.

K1-22-AB
((Lipstick Lies x Logo) x Planned Treasure) X Flight of Fancy

Couple more here..........

K1-55-C: Thriller X Gypsy Romance



N9-017-XB: Night Ruler X Before the Storm



N9-098-B: (Conjuration x Beula sib) X Honky Tonk Blues



K1-73-2N: ((Edge of Winter x Silver Years) x American Maid) X Spring Tidings

They are beauties, but the first one is my favorite.

When this one first bloomed, it gave me pause for thought since I couldn't imagine Silverado as a pod parent giving anything remotely akin to this color. But I checked into the parentage and sure enough 'Navy Strut' which is a pretty dark marine violet is in the pod parent of Silverado. So , Spring Tidings combined with that to produce a pretty nice creation which I still grow here and I did row it out last year in some new soil, just to see if it might be a candidate.\

N7-141-LP: Silverado X Spring Tidings

I produced an amazing number of patterns and colors from this cross. This is just one of many good ones that came out of that seed pod.

K1-15: ((Spinning Wheel x Daredevil) x (Daredevil x (Cloverdale x Spaceblazer)) X ((Spin Doctor x Daredevil) x (Spin Doctor x Capricious))

this will be enough of these. they are getting too involved.

N4-93: Cruzin X Acoma



K3-24: ((Altruist x Breakers) x (Lipstick Lies x Jesse's Song)) X (Spin Doctor sib x ((Grand Waltz x Island Fiesta) x (Cruzin x Acoma)))

I hope you introduce N7-141-LP: Silverado X Spring Tidings!

I agree, Marvin. This is very nice! Intriguing color combo and beautiful form. All are nice, but the other one that I partiularly like is your black seedling. Nice form and deep saturation
and I love those deep cobalt beards. If you could keep the color saturation and lighten those beards to a light blue---spectacular! I think I would opt for a cross with Obsidian to see what happened. Obsidian might be a good option for your dark plicatas too, since it has plicata heritage.

I like the idea of multiple flower stalks from one rhizome. That trait would be a great selling point.

I love the first one, and agree with Ben on the black. Except that I like the beard color just the way it is!! I would want to see these exact colors with a form more like the Irises above and below it. That would be in my garden in a heartbeat!!

All of these were wonderful, Marvin - thank you for sharing!!

What is interesting to me is that if you look at the parents of N7-141-LP: Silverado X Spring Tidings, neither one is as ruffly as it is, and look at those ruffles! Goes to show that some plants might out produce themselves. Maybe a good reason to cross some of the not so perfict seedlings and see what happens. I also agree with Greg, that trait to produce multiple stalks sure seems like something one might strive to continue. I think it was Rim Of Fire that did that for me last summer, not certain about that though, It might have been Cold Fushion, but I'll watch for it again this spring. I do know is was among a group of Sutton irises though.

Oh, I am soooo impressed! They are all just beautiful! I love the very dark one with the blue beard....I love them all!!! I try to see what you see when you talk about improvements and I must say there are a lot of irises that are for sale that are not nearly as lovely as these. I looked at the information in the parenthesis and wanted to ask which is named first the pollen or the pod parent?

Marvin, if I ever have a seedling that has a bloom I would have to name it 'the bees done it'!

Bonnie, you don't often get a bee pod nowdays on the TB iris. Over the years, the size of the bloom has increased to the point that when a bee crawls into the heart of the plant, his back does not reach the stigmatic lip where the pollen is deposited. There are exceptions of course. I do, however, get a fair amount of pods that are not set by my work, but most often they are empty. I am not sure what prompts the plant to do this . Maybe some of our specialist out there would know.

Bonnie, the information in parentheses is the chart of the cross displayed so that it can be written in words. It can be a bit hard to read and hard to lay out even. The pod parent is always first and the names within parentheses should actually have seedling numbers since that is what they represent. Makes it even more confusing if you are not used to working with them. Notice the small 'x' is used inside the parentheses and the large 'X' is between the pod and the pollen halves of the chart. Everything before the large 'X' is part of the pod parentage and everything after is part of the pollen parentage... Maybe I should have left this alone.

Great question Bonnie! And your answer was perfect, Marvin.

I get bee pods all the time. Lots of them. I always break them off cause I'm not interested in breeding Irises, and I know they take a lot of energy out of the plant. Rather have that energy going to increases. I should let a couple mature -- and see if there are seeds in there.

Bonnie -- I love your seedling name!!

No, Marvin, you explained it perfectly. I knew there had to be a way to note which parent contributed the pollen and which grew the pod and I knew that it would have to be consistent. I am so amazed at all the beautiful irises you have created!!!

I agree with Tom's comment about the form of your seedlings. I love wide parts and large ruffles. I'm not crazy for lace. I would buy the black seedling with the blue beard even though it is a little less voluptuous than some of the others. Thanks for sharing.....