Updated: 05/15/02

1981 Crosses

The 1981 seed crop was a good one. I planted 48 arilbred crosses, some strictly experimental to explore arilbred genetics as I was still developing my overall model.  Some were part of a planned program for reds and pinks. Many of these crosses gave other patterns along to road to pink, some desirable in themselves.

81-1: Heart Stealer X Mary of Magdala. Produced one nice pastel blend, 81-1-2, which I introduced as Singing Bird.

81-3: Welcome Reward X Esther, the Queen. Produced several promising breeders, but only two were introduced: 81-3-1 as Unclaimed Treasure and 81-3-2 as Opposites Attract.

81-4: Bangledesh X Martha Mia. Just exploring the possibilities of two C.G. White Award winners from EQ's downline. I got several nice ones, including 81-4-2, which I introduced as Herb McKusick.

81-10: Martha Mia X Expert Advice. Continuing the quest for pink, I got a flamboyant blend of rose, apricot & terracotta in 81-10-3, which I named Rose of Sharon.

81-11: Bedouin Woman X Mary of Magdala. This was a fertility test, to explore the potential of Bedouin Woman. Only one was selected: 81-11-1 was introduced as Edith Seligmann. If you look this one up in the Checklists, you'll find that I registered it listing Gus Seligmann as the hybridizer. An easy mistake to make because it came from one of our blended beds.

81-47: Sheik X Esther the Queen. Only one seedling of this cross survived the ravages of a Great Pyrenees puppy, but it proved exceptional. I introduced 81-47-1 as Song of Babylon.

1982 Crosses

Col. Gus Seligmann guested many of Gene Hunt's selected seedlings and I made crosses in his garden as well as my own. I cultured the seeds, he raised the seedlings, and the lines of ownership grew blurry. All of the following introductions started out in that joint seedling bed, so I've included them in this list regardless of which one of us went on record as the hybridizer.

82-13: Story Theme X Special Guest. Story Theme for its form and pink genes, Special Guest [at that time still grown as a seedling] for its color and signal. Many good offspring, but the best was the brick-red-orange 82-13-7, introduced as Mesilla Morn.

82-18: Heart Stealer X Song of Esther. A cross I made for Gus, trying for improved lavender pinks. Although it produced a number of good ones in the pinkish lavender range, none of them were really outstanding. Then there was this striking adobe pink, 82-18-14, which we named Casa Vicente.

82-22: Martha Mia X Moon Dust. A mix-up-the-genes-to-see- what-happens cross I made for Gus. From it, he selected 82-22-1 as Sonoran Dove and 82-22-4 as Gotcha. I later introduced 82-22-14 for him as Gold Margarita.

82-25: Persian Pansy X Heart Stealer. One of many experimental crosses using a tetraploid aril as the pod parent in quest of unbalanced tetraploid 3/4-breds. Most of the offspring were Persian Pansy lookalikes. The best of those, 82-25-1 was introduced as Warrior Chief. An unusual pastel blend, 82-25-2, which exhibited some fertility as a pollen parent, was named Proud Papa.

82-26: Persian Pansy X Arab Dusk. Another experiment in producing 3/4-breds with an aril pod parent. The majority of the seedlings were Persian Pansy lookalikes, but 82-26-2 was a striking exception. Named Whirlwind Romance after it proved unusually pollen fertile.

1983 Crosses

Few of this batch survived my mother's year of chemotherapy and by the time I resumed work with the iris I had newer, more interesting crosses demanding their share of limited garden space. I kept a few selected breeders for pink, among them two seedlings from 83-5: Boaz X Sunrise in Glory. Seedling 83-5-3 was a nice pastel that turned out to be an exceptional breeder so I eventually introduced it as Recipe for Success.