I see your point Paul. A seedling is an important part of the process of iris creation. Only the hybridizer knows what traits he/she is looking for and would not want to share an inferior iris and one that is great should be introduced bearing the hybridizers name. however, on the flip side of that coin there are many people who buy named varieties and discard that information on planting the iris so you will always have ppl asking for iris id.
There is a hybridizer locally that creates beautiful iris and gives them names and sells them but never goes through the process of registering them. This creates confusion when someone buys one of his irises and puts its name on the marker and then several years later another hybridizer in another area gives the same name to his creation. I have not bought any of his irises so far. If I did I would have to put on its marker his name and 'not reg'.
Some hybridizers that have a valuable iris often send it to different zones to be grown to see how it does. It usually has a number at that point and the person 'testing' the iris is known to be responsible and not to sell, divide, share, etc. this iris and when it is named to follow the hybridizers wishes and to correctly label it.
I do not know much about hybridizing but I think there would be as many people for sharing seedlings as against in this case. Only my humble opinion and not meant to be anything more than expressing my thoughts to people who will not take offense at my ignorance....and you have to factor in the BEAUTIFUL irises that have been posted here and our little hearts yearning...... smiles
