Tim,

If you'd like to come and gather all the ugly ones to be SAVED let me know when you'll be by to dig! I don't think I'm alone on this; we don't want ugly ones floating around.

Kevin

on that ugly-floating-around point.

Kevin, I think this is discrimination, somehow, but I'll let it go this time.

JungleShadows said:Tim,
If you'd like to come and gather all the ugly ones to be SAVED let me know when you'll be by to dig! I don't think I'm alone on this; we don't want ugly ones floating around.
Kevin

I would advise against turning me loose in your garden with a shovel.
Seriously, though, I'm with you on this. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Tim,

Believe me it would be a SUPERVISED DIG! This latest crop is pretty good so there are very few ugly ones in this group. On these I don't mind giving away the culls as they involve many of my newest hybrids. Most are too close in color to 'Borscht' or 'Heart of Darkness' for example in the crosses involving those cultivars. I am only saving those that are improvements upon their parents or those wqith new patterns or colors.

I have an offer to take the "selected culls" into a program where they are used in landscape uses. Most of these are way better than 99% of the cultivars on the market so it's a shane to just toss them.

Kevin

Wish I lived closer! I'd be there to take some! Especially if you are talking about some in the front bed, I meant to take some when there for clinic and forgot! (if they were being offered )

I love this discussion. Breeding anything involves some decisions that at some level seem very unkind. The next time you have a hamburger or meatloaf ...It likely came from the poor unfortunate Holstien males who did not have the right qualities to become breeding bulls.
and dog breeding let's not even go there
I think that the more varieties of a plant that are created the more it is important to make sure we are not reinventing the wheel'
But Kevin ....You must not get rid of even one of those iris by your deck

Breeders have to be ruthless, otherwise the line and the quality goes down the tubes. Sort of like the former Soviet Union where politics got in the way of genetics and they nearly starved!

What I keep are 1) pretty faces, that are nearly finished products (that's a no-brainer), 2) plants showing novel/ interesting traits that I haven't seen previously and 3) progress on lines for larger size, towards black, large red cobwebs, etc. Of the 75 I kept, probably 35 are #1, with the remainder split between the other two. Some of the plants in the third category MIGHT get named if the advance turns out to be significant. All three will be used in crossing to generate the next generation.

The new bed with the selected seedlings is like a "dream bed". Nice to have so many neat ones. I'm already using them in crosses in my imagination!

Greg, I don't know what you mean by "front bed". To me that's the shade garden along the road! I didn't dig that day because I didn't want to start a stampede or hurt people's feelings. Of course Toby is selling my plants and I can't give those named ones away.

Jo Ann, I did number a BUNCH of the Pacific Coast Native iris seedlings. It was a REALLY good crop this year and i have made an obscene amount of seed crossing them too. I have one that I have dubbed "Booyah" (Victory is Ours!!) as it is just amazing. Needless to say i have put its pollen on all sorts of things.

Kevin

speaking of Iris - I made two crosses today - I go for the easy stuff

Wow Patty that's cool!!
Kevin I understand - no problem. The bed I meant was the one up near your neighbors garage/fence. There are some interesting ones still in there!

OK Greg! Yeah I had pulled quite a few out of there myself. Got all the plants in pots in the ground before the rains hit. Looks to be a good transplanting week as it's off and on rain and overcast plus cooler.

The bed with newest seedling selections looks AMAZING already. It is like a bed of CANDY, all the most amazing semps. This will be part of next year's clinic!

Great on you Patty for crossing iris. I am making in excess of 50 each day and my percentage of pods is really high this year. This should be my biggest crop of seed ever. The spurias are just starting to bloom. My biggest crop of them, almost 2K.

Kevin

Busy as bees, you both are, Patty and Kevin...

My Shirley Temple is starting to throw a bloom. Should I find her a date?

Margo yes you should!!!
Kevin you really are very busy!

I really love the look of Shirley Temple, but my only hesitation in crossing her, is that it seems to be a relatively short lived variety. I wouldn't want to pass that on...I think.

I watched all 4 of Kevin's videos. Awesome! But, I have a question. What do you do, if you don't live in Oregon, where it doesn't rain in the summer. Kevin said it's a mess with gauze, but didn't specify.

...clueless in Ohio.

Shirley Temple is blooming, and Baby Boo is just getting ready to pop. Maybe I could get a small arach with long, spikey, red tipped leaves. I could call it Shirley's Baby Recluse.

Muslin bags, cheesecloth or old stockings. Any of them work in lieu of paper bags.

Kevin

Thanks, Kevin.

ravenpickers said:
Shirley Temple is blooming, and Baby Boo is just getting ready to pop. Maybe I could get a small arach with long, spikey, red tipped leaves. I could call it Shirley's Baby Recluse.

Hoping you get that seedling Margo, just so I can have one in my bed with that name.