having a plan, and observing carefully. And did I mention patience?
Link: www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/22/1779150/california-breeder-keeps-perfecting.html
Peter,
Thanks for the article; as I read it, I kept thinking of Ralph Moore-another visionary. It is uplifting to read of National Treasures like this. They are out there, we just need to hear about them more to inspire our youth.
Onward and upward,
Jim
My hero! Floyd, that is, not you Peter.
“Zaiger’s has a huge knowledge base and a huge germplasm to draw from. With linear breeding, we’ll lose his kind of out-of-the-box, creative, artistic, intuitive breeding.”
You betcha. Classical breeding will always have a place at the top of the toolbox.
“Growers pay a royalty fee of $2.25 per tree, and 15 percent of the sales from their crop to Zaiger and marketers.”
There will always be a place for that in my wallet!
Years ago I bought a true genetically dwarf sweet cherry tree that had been bred by Zaiger. I left it behind a couple of houses ago and would like to get another but, alas, it seems to be out of commerce.
Patience is the key word here I reckon… last year I was toying with the idea of playing with crossing apples… then I found it can take up to 7 years to get your first fruit and then the chances are it will be a dud… I like to think I’m a little patient… but I’m not THAT patient 
I have read before about Mr Zaiger, but this was definitely inspirational. Thank goodness roses have a bit of a quicker turnaround, because this is what I want to be doing at 85 and beyond. Anyone who has tried the peach/plum/apricot cross fruits know what a contribution Floyd Zaiger has made to fresh fruits.
It’s a very interesting story and inspiring at the same time. It certainly is a lot of work that he has done.
In addition to roses, we also breed tree peonies, which require five years from germintion to first bloom: patience! Anyone want some tp seeds?
somehow this belongs here.
David, I have herbaceous peony seedlings that I’ve been waiting for 4 years to bloom too… will have a truck load of tree peony seeds myself this year if any Aussies would like to try them.
There is a man in Vancouver, WA that breeds Japanese Iris. I bought some like 10 years ago. They looked beautiful in the garden. I was amazed at this man’s patience. First off, there is not much to gain by breeding them other than the satisfaction of raising something good. Also, Japanese Iris are pretty slow growers with really specific needs. There isnt much profit in selling them. I hope to have enough land again some day to have the type of garden that can host a lot of these types of plants. Some of the more unique cultivars of tree peonies are spendddddddddddyyyyy. They’d be cool to also grow out some day too. Dahlia and day lily breeding is pretty big here as well. There really isnt any money in it. If one could invent Stella d’Oro in colors that are more modern then there could be patent profit. However, no day lilies since it have been able to be the commercial performer SdO has been.
I really do not forsee the point in trying to profit from ornamental breeding for quite some time. The cost of patenting is insane, the protections are limited, and the ornamental market is on its knees. It would be helpful if the Govt made plant patenting more efficient in many ways but that really does not solve the economic issues, lol.
Speaking of selling plants: tps bloom about a month earlier than roses, in early May when it is very easy to sell anything that has blooms, especially blooms 6 to 8 inches diameter.
Yeah, peonies in general were sold out asap when I worked in wholesale. Theyre usually just same varieties tho.
I lost a mature specimen (10yrs old) of yoshino gawa due to continual drought stress this summer. Also a handful of azaleas and several camellias. Conditions don’t appear to be improving and personally; until they do, I won’t be investing much money into nursery stock.
Daylilies in general are usually not patent because they are too easy to propagate. Thats why new daylilies run for $50 or more. Just so the breeder can try to re cope some of some of their cost. I know black eyed stella was patented by the university hat created it but that is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Breeding different colors from Stella is a little annoying. The yellow is really dominant and most of the best non yellows are all tetraploid unlike Stella. But the Siloam makes it almost unnecessary to breed from it anyways. Many of these are repeat blooming in several different colors and they tend to be easy to grow.
The Siloam does make a good point for us with naming. Daylilies are breed in such number that it is hard to find a name that hasn’t been used before. So the breeder decided to use the town name in front of all of his selection.
Another thing this series points out is that if you are patient and work at it even when everyone tells you it can’t be done, you might just be able to do it. After the tetraploids first came out people gave up on breeding them. This series is pretty much all diploids and they rival the tetraploids in quality and color. Something he was told he could not do with a diploid line.
Yeah, I was buddies with a day lily breeder. She lives up in the hills above Hillsboro, Oregon. She was telling me that even the other dwarf repeaters do not come close to the commercial capacity that SdO can. I was asking because I was in wholesale at the time and I thought it was a good way increase commercial landscape color. Ive seen enough varieties of new zealand flax to make ya puke =/ Day lilies are great plants. I do realize there are a bajillion varieities but only a select few have wide-sprectrum usefulness. Theyre very durable, hardy, easy to propagate and they have even more potential to live up to. Theyre also a good answer for, “Where do we get a lot of color in August?!?!”
I noticed the series name in day lilies, various iris types, streptocarpus (my fave!), african violets and others I cannot recall right now. It gets confusing but its useful.
I’ve just started to try and breed Bearded Iris too which fall into the same category as the Daylillies… easy to propagate and not usually patented. Kinda bizarre to pollinate too and some are coming out as repeaters. I think it’s funny that a lot of the people here wear so many different hats… refreshing to know that I’m not the only strange one here Maybe why I like it here 
Adam,
The Siloam hybridizer was a lady. Her last name was Henry.
Definitely read the McFarland book that Jadae mentioned. It is chockful of pictures of roses that were popular at that time and his observations. He had developed a method of printing colored plates that was cutting edge in its day in the USA- a pleasant read.
Another pleasant read is A PASSION FOR DAYLILIES: THE FLOWERS AND THE PEOPLE by Sydney Eddison (another lady-English then Americanized). In the book she mentions how Mrs. Henry crossed “pretty on pretty”, kept no records and as the seed pods matured, gathered the seeds and threw them all in a large coffee can which she kept on a shelf to be planted next spring! Have some of her daylilies, wonderful.
Jim
Jim I did not know she was a lady. I knew the last name but never a first name. The story about the coffee can is also knew. I knew however no records were kept. I should have remebered this however because I did read that book but it was a long time ago. Some of her daylilies are really nice I have to agree with you on that.
I always wanted a bearded iris like Batik with the varigated foliage and grape scent of pallida. Something like that could be patent-able. A striped repeated could also be patent worthy. Whatever it is, it has to have mainstream commercial appeal to be worth patenting. Otherwise, forget it unless its for some random scientific or proprietary reason lol.