I've decided this year to dive into hybridizing and I would love some suggestions of irises with a particular trait that I am interested in. I don't know if it's called a dart or arrow or something else, but it's the line that extends from the beard toward the edge of the falls. I prefer a shorter one over an entire line, but at this point I want to buy both to try out and see what I can produce. Here's some example of what I'm looking for:



Thank you in advance for your help!

I believe thats a plicata trait, not for sure though.. you'll also find them in Luminata's. Celtic Tartan kinda has what your talking about, but I can't pin a specific close enough.

Lording It has a dart, or chevron. Hello Beautiful has a center line. Pretty much the same thing, but different hybridizers give it different names. Hopefully Kent or Brad or Lucy can give you tips on how to get this trait to show up in crosses.

Other iris with a single center line on the falls include:
SDB MDB

Niki!

Happy Hybridizing Liz!

Elf Esteem has the dart going up instead of down. Interesting...

good luck liz! hats off to you in advance!

There are lots of center line iris. Even crazy plicatas like Ball of Confusion still have a center line:
Good grower too

Dividing Line is a classic example:

Others in my garden:
Blue Hues
Brighde - a more diffuse line
same goes for Burnt Toffee and Casper's Shadow
distinct line on Celtic Pixie
Cherry Blossom Song
Courtney Rucker
historic Double Your Fun has a dart
as does Dragon Flamedart, but the dart doesn't always appear
Dragon Flight
Dumbledore
Electric Candy
Exactitude
Grace Upon Grace

Oh heck - you get the idea. Post a list of center line iris you are looking for. If they aren't new intros then I bet someone here can help you out.

The 'dart' on MDB Dragon Flame Dart keeps not showing up & other people say that as well. So I suspect it is a recessive. Make a list of all the plants you have which show that trait. You will probably find more when your new flowers bloom. It might be linked to the plicatas but may not be. When you have a list of ones which you already know the you have, look them up in the iris encyclopedia & find the background (pedigree). That might give you clues to the color pattern. Cross like to like. Plants which have the trait should be crossed to each other. First time you will get a mess, but you can figure out first bloom season what will happen.

Hi All,

May I ask, what is the difference between a dart and a signal? Is a signal a wider patch like you see in many Arilbred irises? Thank you!

Liz,
I would recommend looking at the parents of an iris with the feature you like, to find out how it was created.

I think one way to create an iris with a recessive trait is to cross both parents that have that trait. Sometimes a parent only needs to have the desired trait in it's ancestry to pass that trait on.

One of Kent's cuties Livy has parents that also have darts. ie:
I Must Have It x Silk Run
Similarly, Buongiorno has parents with darts ie: Thundermaker x Stop Flirting.

I Must Have It has parents Romantic Gentleman x Stop Flirting. I don't think Romantic Gentleman has darts, but one of it's parents is Man About Town which has darts.

Have fun hybridizing. I look forward to seeing what you create.

Scott - I think that a dart is a smaller and thinner line. Signals are often used in descriptions of Louisiana and Japanese iris and on them a signal is a specific triangular shape. You don't see that shape represented on bearded iris in the same way.

Thanks Leslie! Still learning!

You never quit learning, or at least I keep learning new things on this forum!

Thanks everyone, great advice as usual! I have some of the cultivars mentioned, but I'm going to get some others that you all suggested. I'm definitely most interested in producing darts like Lording It. For me personally it grabs my attention, plus I feel like I need to have a vision of some sort to get started with.

Do you want to produce mostly TB's?

I'm not sure. I've really fallen in love with dwarf and intermediate irises. I think I originally gravitated toward the TBs because I like the colors and patterns I've seen from them. I suppose that should just motivate me to make some median creations that I love.

Liz, that's sort of what Loic Tasquier said to me - that he focuses on medians because lots of people hybridise TBs and not so many hybridise the smaller ones. I've bought a few of his, and hope to get more next year. He seems to cross TBs with medians, too - I guess to introduce new colours and patterns. Can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks Mika, I'm excited to get started! I know that people cross TBs with SDBs to get IBs. Please share pics of your little guys when they bloom!