Iris 2011

[deesen]

David,

15-25cm high is WAY smaller than mine as well, and the clump size is about the same as yours I think. .........

Glad to hear that Paul, I thought I had bought a giant! I think your spade idea is the perfect remedy.

[Paul T]

David,

That way it leaves the main part of the plant undisturbed (more or less), while giving you other plants to get growing elsewhere.  Once you know you've established more you can butcher the original to your heart's content.    I'm brutal I know, but usually only with backups already established. 

[deesen]

Paul, when you split do you reduce the length of the leaves on the split portions please?

[McDonough]

Nice show everybody !

I've got another Juno flowering at the moment : Iris nusariensis from Syria

On the second picture you can see a second flower bud developping nicely...  

Luc, the Iris nusariensis is stunning, I've seen it on the SRGC pages, and I'm in awe of the flower color and form.  I'm partial to pale smokey ice blue colors (perhaps the reason I like Globularia so much), and this Iris personifies the most pure of color schemes.

[Paul T]

Paul, when you split do you reduce the length of the leaves on the split portions please?

David,

Not if there is a decent root system on it.  The only time I'd cut leaves back on transplanting if there were few roots.  I don't ever trim the leaves on lazica, although some years I do in early winter on the unguicularis as they start to flower.

[LucS]

Today a first flowering of a rather temperamental juno which made me quite happy: iris fosteriana.
It grows wild in the Kopet Dag (NE-Iran, NW-Afghanistan) in dryish steppe country on stony slopes which are moist in spring but very dry in summer. So the best chance of succes is cultivation in a cold greenhouse or a bulb frame where water can be withheld completely in the summer.

[McDonough]

Today a first flowering of a rather temperamental juno which made me quite happy: Iris fosteriana.
It grows wild in the Kopet Dag (NE-Iran, NW-Afghanistan) in dryish steppe country on stony slopes which are moist in spring but very dry in summer. So the best chance of succes is cultivation in a cold greenhouse or a bulb frame where water can be withheld completely in the summer.

Congratulations Luc, a very nice juno.  I first saw photos of this species on Kees Jan's remarkable photo gallery of plants from Kopet Dag, Northern Iran.  I love the purple bracts (is that the official terminology) beneath the flowers.

Kees Jan's SmugMug photo gallery on plants of Kopet Fag, Northern Iran, 49 pages, 723 photos
http://keesjan.smugmug.com/Botanical-trips/Asia/Kopet-Dag-Mountains-NE-Iran/

...you can browse through the whole gallery (I did a couple of times ), or search Iris fosteriana, with 52 photos of it!
http://keesjan.smugmug.com/search/index.mg?searchWords=Iris+fosteriana&searchType=InSubCategory&SubCategoryID=1089740&x=0&y=0

...here is one of 52 photos on this beautiful Iris:
http://keesjan.smugmug.com/Botanical-trips/Asia/Kopet-Dag-Mountains-NE-Iran/12322686_YBsYX#881714139_hgang

Luc, did you grow yours from seed, and if so, how long to reach flowering?  Looks like you have room for expanding your collection, with all those empty pots.

[RickR]

Yes, those purple bract things are interesting appendages.  I don't think I have ever noticed them before, held with that aspect, on an iris.

[LucS]

Marc, this one is not from seed. It is one of the collections of Jim Archibald.

The dark purple standards are in this species turned down to almost a vertical position as is shown in the next photo.

[RickR]

Iris standards that fall... I never would have thought.

[LucS]

Iris standards that fall... I never would have thought.

An extract from the iris book by Brian Mathew with the parts of a juno flower.

[RickR]

Thanks, Luc! 
And I didn't know that was the norm for Juno iris:
that the standards grow below the falls.

[Todd Boland]

Wish I could grow junos in my part of the world but alas, not even bucharica lasts more than 2-3 years.  I have to live vicariously through others.  Thankfully we can grow the reticulata with no fuss.

[LucS]

You can find Iris (juno) aucheri with a whole range of blue flowers.
This clone has very dark blue flowers .

[McDonough]

Wow, that's an intense dark color!   Truly special.

I have a single plant of I. aucheri (regular blue) growing outdoors for the past 8-9 years, flowering nicely the first few years but I only get leaves in more recent years, I don't think these plants take too kindly to competition from neighboring plants.