They do it the old fashioned way. That's why the new intros are expensive, and that's why no one has ever gotten rich hybridizing irises.

Well that sucks. Oh well, at least now I can stop wondering about it.

It's kind of reassuring to know this. I like that it's done the old way. If they were made by tissue culture, I could see a few "perfect" varieties dominating the market. This way it's more diverse. That's just my thought, not based on actual information :)

If we can clone a sheep; why not a bearded iris?

Oh well...

I think they can, but irises produce perfect clones of themselves so rapidly and cost so very little already that it would not be a wise move economically to set up massive greenhouses with petri dishes. The other reason it works so well the way they do it now is they have plenty of time, several years, to analyze the plant's quality, how well it does in different weather conditions, how fast it multiplies, and whether there is rebloom. There are lots of things hybridizers consider besides the beauty of the individual bloom. How many buds per plant and how well do they open? Are they all crowded together on the stalk, or spaced out well? Do they all open at once, or do they open one at a time? When does it bloom? Too early and it might get frozen, too late and it might never bloom before frost. A lot of considerations go into the evaluation of a new iris, I guess.

If we can clone a sheep; why not a bearded iris?

==>>> because the start-up investment .. will not be paid off by the market ...

think of it this way.. exactly how many million iris would need to be sold to pay for the TC process ...

though we are a bunch of collectors.. i doubt the mass markets to be great enough ...

first you would spend $5000 to patent the plant .. then the cost of TC... and pretty soon you need to sell 50,000 of them to BREAK EVEN... let alone profit ...

we here will take the first 20 or 30 .. but who will buy the rest ????

ken