spunky1 said:in my experience plant habit normally comes from the pod parent and the bloom will be influenced mostly by the pollen parent. This is not science and not always the case, but is only my opinion.
Fred, I don't want to put you on the spot but I would like to please ask for some clarification.
I have seen the traditional belief that pod parents influence plant habit and pollen parents influence flower characteristics before. But no one ever describes what they specifically mean by 'plant habit' and 'flower'. There are a substantial number of possible characteristics that could describe plant habit and as many or more possible characteristics that could describe flowers.
What specific characteristics would you say were 'plant habit'?
Would these include height of the scape, number of buds, number of branches, how fast it produces new fans, width of leaves, length of leaves, dormant, evergreen, semi-evergreen, whether it has fibrous roots or tuberous roots, etc.? Which ones exactly do you include in the plant habit? Please name all the specific characteristics that seem to come from the pod parent in your crosses.
Also which plant characteristics would you include in those that were bloom and influenced mostly by the pollen parent in your crosses?
Would those include, when it flowers, if it reblooms, the flower width, the petal & sepal widths, the petal & sepal lengths, the flower colours, the eye patterns, the picotees, ruffling, whether it is fertile or sterile, the average number of seeds it produces per pod, the average number of pollinated flowers that produce pods with seeds, whether it is pod-fertile at all, whether it is pollen fertile or sterile, etc. Please name all the specific characteristics that seem to be influenced mostly by the pollen parent in your crosses.
And lastly, what proportion of the crosses you make are done reciprocally? That is, do you always cross Cultivar A x Cultivar B and Cultivar B x Cultivar A when you decide to cross two plants with each other? Do you sometimes make the crosses reciprocally? Or hardly ever? etc.
