Here's a question for the iris hybridizers, on culling seedlings. (Thinking ahead, here, because I don't have a whole lot of space for iris seedlings... the daylily seedlings already own the space, and then some.)
With daylily seedlings, some of them can be counted upon to cull themselves prior to maiden bloom, via rot or drought. The hybridizer can also do culling based on foliage. Is it susceptible to disease (leaf streak disease, rust, spring sickness)? Is it starkly upright as opposed to nicely arching? Is it thick and coarse? (And, I suspect with some hybridizers, some culling may happen in favor of foliage color (deep green or blue-green) or habit (in favor of dormant or semi-evergreen).)
Daylily hybridizers can also select based on vigor of growth... if the seedling is slow growing, and shows no sign of bloom when most of its class (either all seedlings from that year of harvest, or other seedlings in that particular cross) are going gangbusters, and may have had their maiden bloom.
So the corresponding iris question is, what kind of seedling culling or selection can be made with iris seedlings prior to maiden bloom?
