Viewing post #759125 by needrain

Mary Ann,

It's not too hard a concept, but it's difficult to make it look like it's not hard . Arilbreds come from either/or both the aril iris species combined with the other bearded iris such as TBs, SDBs and various bearded species (sometimes referred to as eupogon iris). The 'O' designates oncocyclus aril iris; the 'G' designates regelia iris; the 'B' designates the bearded (eupogon) iris. So OGB without the minus sign means the plant is an oncogeliabred that is basically half aril and half bearded. If the minus sign (OGB-) follows, it means it is an oncogeliabred that is less than half aril. That is the designation that Lucy says do better in her growing conditions. If the designation is written (OGB+), then the plant is less than half bearded iris and may grow more like the aril species. In times past these were referred to as halfbred, quarterbred and three-quarterbred arilbred iris.

To go a bit further the designations can mean basically the same, but if enough information is known about the parentage they can be written a bit differently. An arilbred where it is known that the only aril species in it's background is oncocyclus would likely be designated as OB+, OB or OB-. Using the regelia species it would be RB+, RB or RB-. It's more common for both aril species to show in the lineage so OGB designations are seen more often. Those without the plus(+) or the minus(-) following the designations are those that have the most fertility due to having balanced chromosome sets.

TMI?