OK to your questions.
The book is due to the publisher in December of 2016, so it will be 5-6 months before it appears.
I do keep things organized to get the crosses done. As the rosettes start to show flowering stalks I make a list and decide on the best combinations or whether I need to self pollinate a plant to understand it genetically. In Oregon, we rarely have summer rain so I simply put paper bags on the bloomstalk and write the name of the cross on the bag (and a copy in my notebook) over the stalk before the first flower opens. I do crosses as part of my regular routine, generally between 9 and 10 AM the pollen is in good shape and I can start spreading it in crosses. I cross for 1-2 hours each day and try to pollinate all the flowers on 2-3 branches on a stalk. That way you will get sufficient seed from a given cross to see some of the segregation of traits. Some crosses give fewer viable seeds so you need to pollinate lots of flowers. A few very recalcitrant parents I let open pollinate and just collect the seed. These are cultivars where I've made hand crosses and obtained no seed. Sometime the bees will find a parent that will set seed on it. I do this as a last resort as most of the bee set seed gives poor copies of their parent. Generally even the bees only set a few seed on these recalcitrant parents.
The seedlings are really pushed. They are treated with Quick Start once every other week. That way they are good sized now and have increase. Many have developed their characteristic colors and, by spring, the remainder will have their "adult" colors. The few seedlings that are kept from each batch are labeled with a seedling number and the rest are given away. This way I have space for new seedlings and the land is not tied up with seedlings.
Hope that helps!
Actually I should have ~110 total bags of seeds. And of course I have iris, daffodil, daylily, hardy geranium, etc. other seed from crosses. Can't help myself!
Kevin
