Evelyn.
Beautiful Picture ! I'll bet that scene is gorgeous in the spring/summer have some friends texting pictures from home this week central Iowa just got 14 inches overnight a few days ago so glad I'm not there to have to clean that mess up and worry about getting around in it.
On the seedlings yes the greenhouse is a definite advantage there is more work getting them going as they go through a process that Mother Nature does if potted up and left in cold.. they need to soak for week to get the seed inhibitor off, then placed in the fridge for 4-6 weeks so they have the cold to mimic outside. then planted and labeled and watered regularly but by doing this I can get Oregon like growth on them by Fall and many will be mature with increase so have a much better chance of seeing them bloom the next year. Most of the time they are germinating in Feb when I get back in town and give me something to look forward too as I'm waiting on spring
The goal is when I plant them in middle of May they are nice sized plants with root systems and will take right off and go quickly during our wet springs so when the heat hits there established.
I try to breed plants for form and pattern over colors in the past have tried to put different colors together and it very rarely works out the way you think it would when crossing 2 iris study and look at the parents they will give you an idea of what to expect for the children as they will be a combination of those plants .. but not always.. some of the pedigrees nowadays are very advanced especially using Barry's plants you could get about anything
which really makes it fun.
Each Hybridizer has been working on certain goals and projects that they excel at and continue to improve on every season (Keith's Plicata's)..(Joe's Pinks)...(Thomas Lines on the falls, blue bearded pinks, pansy pattern) etc.etc. what they are constantly looking for is plants to hybridize with that will give a wide variety of colors or patterns with good form you find this from blooming many seedlings and recognizing those traits or patterns.. a good example from Keith's line would be Reckless Abandon.. it in itself is a mix of Barry's plants, Joe Ghio's and Keith's by looking at it you wouldn't think it would throw Plicata's but somewhere generations back it must be in there because it has produced some wonderful Plicata's one of Keith's best Plicata Breeders (High Desert) is a Reckless Abandon child and it passes on beautiful branching and stalks to it's children he has a garden full of wonderful seedlings from High Desert in lot's of different colors and most have that same trait of good branching.
I pay attention to the catalogs as they come out and the pedigrees in them they will list the parentage and sometimes you can find the same plant being used by multiple hybridizers with good results. The database here is also a huge help where it is really awesome is it gives you the plants pedigree when you look it up but also shows the registered kids it has produced so you can get an idea of what the kids look like definitely an advantage over using the outdated Iris WIKI. Hope this helps and your feeling back to normal in the spring
