Marvin Thanks for sharing your pictures I have enjoyed looking at them they help get through the long winter until I can get outside and start to work on the yard. I also saw hundreds of blackbirds in flight today and that is always a good sign of warmer days ahead. Just started my seeds a little over a week ago and have a couple hundred showing green already that is a great sign.
On Seedling sharing my opinion is this, I have had a couple different hybridizers give me plants that they were not going to introduce because they didn't like something about it, but to me at the time they were some of my absolute favorite in the garden and I was thrilled to have them and they were treated just as good or better than any of the expensive bulbs I paid for, I could of cared less about the branching or if it had one less flower that opened on it than something else that was registered and given a name, for as the old saying goes Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder and to me they were perfect. With that being said I also understand that this is a business to some and commercial gardens are in this to make money and must be very selective but I guess that is where I would struggle with the whole process. I don't think I would ever want to cross that line and make this a job, any time I have ever taken something I liked and made it about money it stopped being fun for me and it turned into work, I spend my time in my gardens in the summer to escape from work they are peace of mind for me.
I also enjoy sharing my plants with family and friends it is awesome to see peoples reaction when they walk through a Iris garden for the first time when they are in bloom , I helped start a few new gardens this year just by giving plants to people instead of throwing them away with the thought process of maybe by me sharing with them I helped plant a small seed in them and it will grow, the more people we have interested in our flowers and actively growing and trying to improve them the better in my opinion. Myself I grow these strictly for my enjoyment and my hybridizing is meant for me to have a small piece of Oregon at home and my own amusement , I have no plans to ever sell anything to anyone they are strictly for my enjoyment, it is not important to me if none of them ever make it to be judged in a show or deemed worthy of being named and sold, it is the process that is fun to me and I want to go outside in the morning during bloom season and hopefully find something brand new out there that know one has ever seen before but me that is my goal
. I am sure I will throw lot's away but if a friend or visitor comes along and looks at one of mine and I have no plans for it, I would gladly give it to them
and return the favor that was paid to me.
and it is turning into ice and slush as it hits the ground the worst part is the wind is howling again, it's supposed to gust over 60mph tonight and if that happens it's going to make for a lot of work to clean up the mess.
