Pacific Coast Iris - hybridizing

James Waddick jwaddick@kc.rr.com
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:59:22 PST

On Feb 4, 2013, at 12:27 PM, Dennis Kramb wrote:

> Inspired by some of the oddball success stories of Dr. Thomas Tamberg made
> in Germany, I wanted to try crossing PCIs with some of the irises in my
> collection (I. prismatica, tridentata, versicolor, virginica, etc.).
> 
> I've given up for now.  But I'm keeping my eye on Tamberg's work, because
> each year more new & interesting things pop up.

Dear Dennis and all, 

	I too am inspired by Tomas Tamberg's work, but my thoughts were slightly different. All the PCN  species have a diploid number of 40. My interest is to hybridize these with another Iris species that has a diploid number of 40, but is easier to grow. Last spring I got 3 PCNs from Wild Ginger Farm and had success crossing the PCN 'Pacific Rim' x Iris lactea and the reverse and I lactea alba x 'Pacific Rim'.  I lactea may be the easiest of all wild iris to grow in the Kansa City area.

	The resulting seeds looked quite different depending on the pod parent. I sent all those with "Pacific Rim' as the pod parent back to Wild Ginger Farm for them to try growing.  I have planted those with I lactea as a pod parent. 

	Years ago Tomas Tamberg made the same cross and showed that it can be done, but he too had only a single PCN to work with since they are very difficult in Germany. I do hope more people will cross modern multi- generation PCN hybrids with I lactea to get a new generation of easy to grow Iris with at least some of the characters of todays PCNs. 

	Keep trying Dennis. 		Best  Jim W. 

	



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