cliftoncat said:This is exciting, Jan! Pics? And what does 'code the crosses' mean?

Jan has most of that right. Coding the crosses is a means of identifying each seed-result -- because as Jan said, every cross can produce multiple seeds. Which results in multiple babies -- which grow up to be entirely different-looking Irises. As an example -- all of your seedlings created this year would probably indicate the year of hybridization -- so your code would start with 16. Then you want to identify the parents -- so maybe it would be the first cross of 2016, so your code would increase to 16-1. You would have a record somewhere that #1 is a cross between whatever and whatever. And if there were ten seedling from this same cross, you would assign a number to each seedling. So now your code would look like this: 16-1-1, or 16-1-2, or 16-1-3, etc.

The babies of your second cross would be: 16-2-1, 16-2-2, 16-2-3, etc.

It gets complicated when you cross one of your seedlings to a named variety -- or heaven help you -- cross one of your seedlings to another of your seedlings!!

Now the naming part -- that doesn't happen until you have decided to publicly introduce a given Iris. And you have to submit the name to AIS for approval.

Lining out is the process of planting a given cultivar/seedling/etc. out in an effort to produce increases -- either to give it a second look and/or start producing enough of something that you're going to introduce.

Hope that makes sense..............

Thank you, Mary Ann - that's really clear and informative. How exciting, waiting for the first blooms! I have some seedlings (less handsome than Jan's, I fear) but mine were from bee pods. Does the AIS run a global register, so that an Australian, French or Polish hybridiser would go to the same place? Is there a book on hybridising that people would recommend?

Thanks, Mary Ann! That was very helpful!
I misspoke when I said "naming" instead of i.d.ing. The naming comes much
later, when you've seen the iris bloom - and then you have to apply to have a
name accepted...if it's one you want to ever introduce. Most will go in the compost!
As I recall, there is a fee - I think it's about $15, (?) to register a name with the AIS.
Thanks for explaining what lining out is!
There's so much to learn about irises!


Mika, there must be a book on hybridizing- but I don't have it. Maybe
Lucy, or someone, could suggest where to get one.

It seems to me that the individual numbers for those seedlings you save are not assigned until you do decide which seedlings to save. That way if you have 120 seeds and you save three seedlings you don't have Seedling 1, 90 and 114, but 1,2,3 .

I assign a number to the entire cross, then only give an individual seedling number to those that I save after they bloom. I would think you should give each seedling a pot if you're not going to put them in a bed so that they have room to grow and expand and bloom next year. You will find some seedlings are poor growers and just don't do well. The first pictures show some nice growth! It will be fun to see the blooms!

That makes perfect sense.

Also, some people use letters of the alphabet instead of numbers. And some people use a mix of the two.

Interesting! A related question: When you note down the parents in a cross, which one do you start with, the pod or the pollen parent? I assume there is a rule here to avoid confusion?

There IS a rule -- and I have no idea what it is!!!

I suspect it's pod parent first.

It is the pod parent first, unlike the horse world where the sire is listed first.

Tom!

Each system is different. My crosses start with L, as John's start with the numeral. He started to go with J but as I use 'L' we decided it was not necessary. My rust colored MTB is : L03-MY-rust. 03 is the year of the cross. M=miniature tall. Y is the cross. rust is the seedling. I would usually use a number for the seedling, but keeping only 4 of them I could use the color. registered name 'Ginger Treat.'

Lucy!

Thank you Lucy, I starred your post for reference.

But your system will fit your needs.

Lucy, , but there is a lot of general information in your post to think about for a custom numbering system.

The more you know, the easier it is to come up with the right system for your own needs!

I number first by the year of the cross, Second number is the number assigned to the cross, and then the letter A, B, C etc. for each in that cross that are kept.

So the seedlings that I just planted are 15 - 1 through 15 - 15 as I have seedligs from 15 crosses. That's the only number they have so far. After they bloom, if I keep let's say 3 seedlings from cross 15 - 2, they would be numbered 15 - 2 - A, 15 - 2 - B, and 15 - 2 - C I keep a master list of each cross number and the parents of them. Of course, if I live another 100 years, I'm going to have come up with a new system!

I think everyone will come up with what works for them.

Tom that's great info too.

What I seem to have finally settled into is a routine which uses the first letter of the pod parent. If I were really going to be purely objective about the merits of each seedling, I should not do such a thing... however, tagging the seedlings that way gives me some hint of what traits I should be looking for in the seedlings, or what that cross was all about.

For example, let's take two pod parents (these are daylilies but the same approach is applicable to irises..) 'Arctic Lace' (a near white) and 'Hip to be Square' (a polymerous daylily). Seedlings labeled A-n-yy-# tell me that this seedling was from 'Arctic Lace' (A), the particular cross was cross n ('Arctic Lace' cross n, indicating the pollen parent), the seed was harvested in year yy, and (when I get down to selecting and labeling individual seedlings) this is (selected) seedling number # from that cross. Since I only use 'Arctic Lace' in near-white crosses, and it is an EMO (early morning opener), then just looking at that label tells me that what I was hoping for in that cross was near-white seedlings that are also EMOs.

Similar, H-n-yy-# tells me that the seedling was from 'Hip to be Square', which in turn tells me that I am looking for any signs of the polymerous trait.

Some years I may use more than one pod parent with the same beginning initial. The (easier for labeling) choice there is to just continue using the single letter approach, and then the combination of that letter and the n designates the particular cross and thus the pod parent. So, for example, given pod parents 'Ballerina on Ice' and 'Belle of Ashwood' , B-1-yy-# seedlings could indicate a cross from 'Ballerina on Ice', whereas B-2-yy-# seedlings might be those from a 'Belle of Ashwood' cross. The alternate labeling choice would be to use a combination of initials to differentiate the parents. In such a scheme, 'Ballerina on Ice' would be indicated by 'BoI' and 'Belle of Ashwood' by 'BoA", and their respective seedlings would thus be designated BoI-n-yy-# and BoA-n-yy-#. This second approach, however, is a bit more cumbersome for labeling, and if I am not looking for any particularly rare or special traits from the parents (where a fuller labeling would be helpful), then it is not really necessary.

If any of that makes sense.

As Tom noted, people use what works for them.

My rhizome from a friend has a shriveled daughter, but the small mother rhizome is sending up new daughters.