TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT
IS ALL ABOUT ALL ABOUT
You could say I've been thinking of writing this article ever since I started to get enthusiastic about breeding the wonderful flower by hand. It seems to me you can't be satisfied with anything without thoroughly immersing yourself in every aspect of the subject. My main worry was trying to grasp the whole concept - including fathoming out how DNA effects the out come of the cross you eventually make. Of course I've learnt many things about genes, chromosomes, and even mitosis which are all to do with passing on the hereditary, or genetic material. Most times these are written by using either capital, or lower case letters, but how will this help unless you're making up a formula to pass on - of know characteristics? With my limited knowledge all it does is complicate the issue, and confuse an undeveloped brain. If you're starting from scratch there isn't any point trying to find out what the particular traits are because the DNA is hidden. A little before Rosalind Franklin took a photo of DNA, which was stolen and given to Watson and Crick without her permission. They then used it to discover the double helix shape of DNA. She got very little credit for finding it having been ignored, and then just before others received the Nobel Prize she died of cancer - you can't get the Nobel Prize if you're dead. So Francis, James, and Rosalind got credit for finding DNA!!!! There were other people trying to find out about DNA, and one being Johann Friedrich Miescher who extracted what come to be known as DNA from the nuclei of white blood cells in 1869. He isolated, and described what he called "nuclein," which eventually became known as deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA), the genetic information of the cell. Phew it fair makes your head ache just thinking of these pioneers.
It's not until you've been working with a few good varieties that you get to know what the hidden characteristics from past generations are, and only then can you start to create better varieties with the traits you desire. So as I laid wide awake this morning at half passed three - I started mapping out how I'd go about trying o unravel this fascinating hobby. By the time I'd set breakfast, and heated Irene milk I managed to have almost a page of ideas in my head which I tried desperately to hold on to despite the television being on, and Irene's early morning questions. I new for a fact all the characteristics that showed - stuff like height, form, colour, petal shape, and even a varieties ability to make good tubers - could be seen as soon as you lifted it, but there were many more that didn't show. Like disease resistance, heat tolerance, and the main one - how the combination of both parents affects the offspring? While I was mulling all this over I realised that many people had worked all this out before, and had settled for selecting the very best varieties of each group to breed from, but how could they know what the combination of two untried varieties would be? Trial and error perhaps, but did I have the time? I come to the conclusion there might be another way, and I was desperate to find out. It was obvious to me that two great parent should produce a bevy of siblings fit for a King, but even the paring of a less than handsome man, and a beautiful woman has sometimes produced equally beautiful children. I realise that most of what we do is hit and miss, but by keeping records of all the varieties we use - there was more chance of developing an even better strain. Of course with records, and the knowledge they hold I could pair varieties with more confidence, knowing that these might have more chance of success especially the more records I had.
It was about now that I heard Irene call for assistance, and instead of saving what I'd put down already - when the computer asked did I want to save - I opted for the word no!!!!!!!!!! Wrong! So as this is the second attempt at writing this article - I've not only lost some vital points I was eager to say, but at the same time added a touch more that I hadn't thought of. I can't count how many times I've done this - especially when writing emails, and so far it doesn't seem to be decreasing, but it doesn't mean I'm not a very nice man - because I've been told on numerous occasion by Irene that I most certainly am - even if I'm not her husband.
Now for a little evidence to back up my findings, and although I haven't sufficient records to say for certain - let me try and give you a few examples. The two shots below were photographs of second year flowers, and they were conceived in the same pod in 2008 by hand crossing Charlie Dimmock to Monet Mystique. I knew a little of Charlie Dimmock's make up, but not it's father (pollen producer) Yvonne.
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Monet Glow. |
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Oliver's Feast. |
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Now as Charlie Dimmock's mother was that great all rounder Taratahi Ruby I begun wondering was this a hand produced flower, or did ol' Bumble do the deed - because there is definitely more than a touch of decorative in it's great, great grand son, or daughter Monet Glow. After all what is a water lily type flower, but a shallow decorative that is wider than deep? But hold tight - what if Yvonne had been produced by some other means than help by a sable brush? Not only are we puzzled by where the shape of the petal came from, but also by what type of flower altered its form. Let's look at photographs of Monet Glow, and Oliver's Feast when they sampled the world for the very first time.