Tall Bearded Seedlings - possiblities of what can be

Margie, your seedlings are ALL absolutely beautiful. My personal favourites are #5 and #10 but I'd treasure any of them. Thank you for sharing your beautiful photographs.

Terri

Steve,
I really like those names! You are quite creative. I'll be hanging onto this thread to keep your names in mind. :-) If you have any more feel free to jot them down here.

Thank you Terri, Pinetucky, and all of you - - for letting me know your favorites. :-)

~ Margie

I have 2 more seedlings that are blooming today. They are now in their third year.

This one I probably won't be introducing because the form is too pastle and not modern enough. It does have interesting green/brown/yellow veins.

Seedling 14

Here is a look from the front. See how the form is really not all that wide. What is good - - is that it has 8-9 buds and great branching.
Still Seedling 14

I'm undecided about this one.......................... I have to double check on it's bud-count this year.
Seedling 15

Thank-you Margie.
I'm glad you like my names, I'll take another look at the pics.....

#1 'Heavens Wings'
#5 'Galaxys Edge'
#12 'Crystal Cave'

theres a few more,
Steve

I just finished post and there was 2 more Iris added!!!
I think 14 is awsome with it's white/cream colouring and brown veining.
15 is very nice as well. 2 of the best yet!

Wow! I would say that #15 looks like a real winner! There aren't any that I wouldn't love to have in my garden.It must be really hard to choose what to introduce, as there are so many irises that look alike.
Sharon

Heres two more names I thought of....

#14 'Vein of Gold'
#15'Galaxys Heart'

Steve

Those are more great names Steve! Wow ..................... you sure are good at this. If I name any of these irises after one of your names - - - I'll send you that one for free! How's that? :-) * If anyone else cares to give this a try - (providing me with names for future introductions) - that goes ditto for them too. *

Sharon - it's so hard to decide what to choose to introduce because so many plants fall short of the expected criteria. One can end up with poor branching, poor budcount, poor substance, poor growth habits, ugly foilage, poor form, plants that tend to rot too easily, or irises that look like so many plants out there,etc. The new introduction really needs to be superior over any other iris in existence that resembles it. Or if it's really unique (and may fall short of some of the criteria, which is sort of OK at that point) - that it can at least replicate itself (grow increases) steady enough to ensure it's own existence.

~ Margie

Once again, I'm glad you like my names Margie. I would really like one of your iris if you decide to use any of the names I suggested. That's nice of you. thanks.

This afternoon I went to the Ontario Gardening show in Burlington, Ontario and I picked up 2 bearded iris to cross. I hope they turn out good, their colours are real kickers. One is near black and is called 'before the storm' and the other is orange/red and called 'cajun spices' or something like that. Even if the cross doesn't turn out well (I have this feeling it will turn out icky)...I still got 2 nice iris.

Steve

WOW! Talk about some gorgeous seedlings! Way to go Margie!!

I like #4, #6, #9, #13, but absolutely LOVE #15 (that's my favorite one)! A rainbow's symphony!

Seetling # 14. I love the veining.
Perhaps if you don't intro it, you can keep it for breeding. The coloring is very unique.
Laetitia

Thank you Shirley and Laetitia. And Laetitia - - just yesterday I was making crosses with seedling #14. There is a lot of good in that iris seedling! It has 9+ buds, super great branching, good substance, strong tall stalk, and interesting genes. I may take it to our show tomorrow and see what the judges have to say.

Steve, how fun that you went to a gardening show and picked up 2 irises to cross! I half expect that you could end up with some rich, deep colored irises when you cross those too. You'll have a lot of fun crossing those irises. I wish you well! :-) And I'll hang on to this thread for future reference on those names, and a possible future iris for you. Feel free to give me more than one name per seedling too. :-)

~ Margie

Edited to edit. ;-D

This message was edited Apr 8, 2006 6:09 PM

Wishing you the best of luck at the judging tomorrow, Margiempv.

Margie, It's good to know that you think those 2 iris I bought will make a good cross, since you have a lot of experience with that. I don't think the roots I bought will bloom this year, but ya never know...
Have a good time at the iris show!

Steve

LOL
You know you're a tease with these pictures. So tell me which ones you like.

It's difficult to pick just two. I like #1 , #5, and #12

# 13 and 14 are both winners I think 15 is also and don't understand your concern. It has really bright color and looks to be a terrific iris. I guess only time will tell.

You'll have to share the inside gossip at your iris show tomorrow. I want to hear all the dirt. Tell what's hot and what's not. LOL

Take care my friend
Mit

HI Mitt,

My personal favorites are #'s 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 13. But..................sometimes I change my mind. ;-)

My concern with #15 is it needs to have at least 6 buds before it is worthy of introduction. So - - I want to make sure it has 6 or more buds. My second concern is that the first bud this year began to fold up way too early, so I'll need to note what the other buds will do. I'm hoping it was just a fluke and not a flaw. If this one fails - - I have a sibling which resembles it closely so I can see how that one does.

Thanks for asking Mitt.

~Margie

THE TAIS IRIS SHOW - -

Thank you for wishing me good luck Aguane. I did pretty well. I wasn't able to show seedlings 14 or 15 - (old buds were closing up this morning and the new buds hadn't opened. Bad timing on their part)

But - - * another seedling of mine took best seedling and won the EC award. Exhibition Certificate (EC) A certificate awarded to top seedlings in an AIS certified show. (irises not yet introduced to commerce at show) *.

The Iris show was early this year and irises are late to bloom this year - - as a result many, many seedlings were not able to make it to the show this year for judging.

Winning Seedling 34-1M NOT pictured above.
But here is a photo of it now:

Congratulations Margie!! That seedling is absolutely gorgeous. :-)

Thank you Sandy. That is what makes crossing irises so fun. Some of them are just beauties!

~Margie

Iris Show: Inside gossip - - what's hot, what's not? (OK - - for you Mit. LOL)

They need/want more iris judges.

When it comes to irises - - the public loves them all!! From the dutch irises - - to the arilbreds - to the Tall beardeds - to the arrangements - to the historics - - and everything in between and then some. The public see the irises and purchase our potted irises (that the club puts up for sale) by the arms full! Then they join the iris club so they can win more irises as door prizes; learn how to grow them well; see iris slide shows of the latest irises; get cheaper prices on sale irises in the fall; and so on.

As for the judges - most of them like to see fuller/wider falls; good to great branching on stalks; good substance; lots of buds; new color, or color patterns, or unique irises. They have a wealth of information and experience judging irises. they KNOW good irises. It great talking to them.

What's HOT? Reblooming irises - - in all sections /varieties of iris. It' the wave of the future.
What's NOT? the nations youth and younger adults seem to have no interest in irises. Questions abound - - how do we reach them?

I hope this answers those questions.
~Margie

Oh, all are pretty but my favorites are #1, 4 and 9. I belong to our local iris club and enjoy them greatly. I would love to get into more dwarfs and mediums.

I have planted several rebloomers last fall and hopefully get a few extra blooms from them.

Our show is the first weekend of May. When is yours?

bluegrassmom - our iris show was yesterday and ends today. They are always so fun!! :-)

~Margie

BB#13 is gorgeous
WOW good job! love the rim

Congrats on the award Margie!
I just planted my two iris a few minutes ago. The 'cajun spice' was just a spec of a tuber with a shoot, but oh well...it'll come along.
Do you have pictures of the parents of your seedlings? Just to give me an idea of variations...

Steve

Tazzy - - thanks. I wish it would be a TB, instead of a BB. This one bloomed before it was even a year old so maybe next year it will be taller. (I wasn't expecting it to bloom until next year.) One of the parents is a rebloomer. Lichen. It is a rather short TB. I'm half expecting it to rebloom too. ( I sure can hope).

Steve - - thank you. :-)
Any seedling in particular that you are interested in seeing photos of it's parents?

~Margie

Congratulation on the winning seedling! I love the super dark edgings. Very dramatic. Dark Drama Queen
It is so frustrating to have an iris that is not blooming on show day!

Maybe the parents of #2 and #6? If it's not too much trouble.
I better go outside and check the ones I just planted.....make sure some critter didn't dig them up or carry them off....

Steve

Hi Steve, Not a problem......... here goes: The parents of #2 are 'POLAR SEAS' x 'EPICENTER'.

This is Polar Seas
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/61105/index.html

This is Epicenter
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/34875/index.html

And the parents of #6 are ................................ The same parents! :-) 'POLAR SEAS x EPICENTER'. One can get a variety of colors & patterns from just one cross. Unless you cross the same solid colors together - then you usually get the same. Not always, sometimes you'll get an 'odd man out or two'.

~Margie

These seedlings are blooming today. They are all 'newbies'.

Seedling #16 - Yes it really is this bright (and it's cloudy outside) - and it looks like velvet!

Margie:
Congrats on winning the best seedling of show .
I think you will have a lot more awards in years to come . I won it once and the darn iris croaked the next year . LOL ,it had a drop of aril in it so it was to good to be true ,

Seedling #17 This one has speckles of lavender over the pale yellow. Click on the photo so you can see it better.


This message was edited Apr 10, 2006 6:33 PM

Thank you Tazzy. Oh my - - I bet it was really nice too. Wouldn't you know it? I hope my doesn't croak. LOL

Seedling #17 again A better view:

Seedling #18 My favorite (I think) as of today.

Seedling #19 Not too great of a photo of this one. It's hard to see it unless you click to see the larger image.

Seedling #20 The most unusual so far. A border bearded - could be tall bearded - -it's a little stunted from Desert Bloom roots in that corner. I believe by next year - - it'll have better form too.

And the last one for now. Seedling # 21 It's a pastel plicata. White background. The rim color and speckles are a pale lavender-gray.

Really like 20 and 18 and hope you intro them. If you need a trial garden I can do it for you...image you have alot of offers with your talent.

D