Iris 2014

Nice tall iris!

We have our first Juno in bloom, Iris planifolia grown from seed many years ago and now regularly flowering in winter in our rock garden,

And yes, we have too many California poppies!

cheers

fermi

The first of the reticulata iris opened this morning, Iris 'Violet Beauty'

cheers

fermi

Nice! I was just wondering whether I should by some new early irises or not. Is 'Violet Beauty' the earliest in your garden? The earliest in my garden is 'Katherine Hodgkins'.

[quote=Hoy]

Nice! I was just wondering whether I should by some new early irises or not. Is 'Violet Beauty' the earliest in your garden? The earliest in my garden is 'Katherine Hodgkins'.

[/quote]

Hi Trond,

Katherine H and her relatives don't like our summers!

Another reticulata to flower (for the first time) is one of Alan McMurtrie's hybrids, Sea Green,

cheers

fermi

Fermi, Sea Green looks great!

What's wrong with your summers? Too hot and too dry? Something like our summer so far. Haven't gotten any rain where I have been at our summerhouse until today! Got 22 mm of rain in 2 hours just now, and that's about all we have had since May. Although other parts of the country have had thunderstorms and flooding.

Hi Trond,

Iris winogradowii and its descendants want a cool dry summer rest and it gets too hot and dry in the garden here.

The other "reticulata" types seem to do well.

Here's more of Violet Beauty this morning,

And the first flower on Iris George

cheers

fermi

Years ago a friend gave me a couple of bulbs of I. winogradowii.  It was wonderful.  But later, when I moved in mid-summer, I forgot to dig it.  I've regretted it every since!

Great pictures, Fermi.  Thank you for posting.

...Claire

A few more "retics" open now,

Iris 'Harmony'

Iris 'Cantab'

Iris 'Springtime'

and another clump of 'George'

cheers

fermi

Here's another "retic" - Iris 'Edward',

cheers

fermi

[quote=Fermi]

Hoy wrote:

Nice! I was just wondering whether I should by some new early irises or not. Is 'Violet Beauty' the earliest in your garden? The earliest in my garden is 'Katherine Hodgkins'.

Hi Trond,

Katherine H and her relatives don't like our summers!

cheers

fermi

[/quote]

Despite what I wrote above, I can't help trying yet again! At least this time she has produced a flower

- whether she's around to repeat the performance next year I don't know!

cheers

fermi

Struggling through the euphorbia and other weeds, this Iris schachtii still manages to bloom a few blooms,

cheers

fermi

'Wanganui gem' was raised in NZ by Jean Stevens and is named for the town where she lived,

cheers

fermi

 I started growing a few oncocyclus iris a few years ago, spurred on by Pat Toolan, an inspirational iris grower in South Australia. She sent me some rhizomes to try and a few have done quite nicely in our garden.

Here are a couple of her hybrids (when she only has one clone and can't "self" a species to set seed, she'll resort to creating hybrids - which can be quite stunning!),

First is Iris kirkwoodiae x Iris atropurpurea

And another one just labeled PT0317

cheers

fermi

Now THAT is a black iris!  Holy Smokes!

Rick,

the oncos contain a range of incredible shades and forms - the markings can be quite incredible.

A little bearded iris just flowering is an "old bicolor form" of Iris lutescens which I got from Robyn Rohrlach a "local" expert who lives a few hours away from here

cheers

fermi

First PCI for the season, a seedling raised from seed sent by Diane W in Canada

Growing in this area is a wild iris called "Settlers' White" as it was probably brought out by prospectors during the Gold Rush in the 1850s; it does well in our garden,

cheers

fermi

A couple of DBIs (Dwarf Bearded Irises) in the garden:

One of the hybrids, possibly 'Raspberry Jam'

A small species grown from SRGC Seedex 2004 as Iris subbiflora

cheers

fermi

Another PCI raised from seed from Diane, a nice brown,

A little species DBI - possibly Iris taochia, raised from seed

cheers

fermi

You have a lovely variety of irises in your garden - wonderful rich colours.  Back long ago, when I was ordering irises, I ordered lots that were described as "brown", "green" and other unusual colours, and mostly got ones the colour of mud or worse, LOL!

I bought what is supposed to be Iris taochia from an alpine supplier years ago:

The flower has a narrower form than yours.  Wonder if it is correct?

I can't help you with that one Lori but certainly Fermi can!

Fermi, I have to echo Lori: You do have a nice Iris collection!!

Hi Lori,

looking at the Signa website (http://signa.org/index.pl?Display+Iris-taochia+3) I doubt that either of us have the true I. taochia!

Being naturally acquisitive it's easy to build up a nice collection - it was a lot harder when I was an impecunious student! Fortunately we have a few serious iris growers/breeders in Australia who have imported as well as bred their own hybrids.  Experienced "amateurs" like Pat Toolan in South Australia have also done a huge amount to breed and propagate iris.

Here are some more in our garden:

PCI Big Money and a seedling raised from it - other seedlings are paler

Some DBIs : Tarheel Elf, Riveting, Rosy Lulu

cheers

fermi

First flower this morning on this Iris reichenbachii from seed from Marcus Harvey (Hillview Rare Plants, Tasmania) sown 20-04-2013,

cheers

fermi

A mauve-purple PCI seedling

DBI 'Cat's Eye'

A couple of "unnamed" iris,

golden-yellow DBI

purple MBI

cheers

fermi

I grew this Iris xiphium from SRGC Seedex collected by Rafa Dominguez in Spain,

cheers

fermi

[quote=Fermi]

I grew this Iris xiphium from SRGC Seedex collected by Rafa Dominguez in Spain,

[/quote]

A third flower opened this morning which has a slightly darker fall which is more recurved,

cheers

fermi

This is another PCI from Heidi Blyth; it's just labeled 8G-LB

cheers

fermi

I have the real Iris taochia (JJA 599.806, seed collected north of Tortum, Turkey), and Lori's picture looks correct, as does the picture on the SIGNA website. I don't have any pictures of mine. Maybe next year. 

Bob

Thanks, Bob,

How tall does yours grow?

cheers

fermi

Yellow Spuria Iris hybrid,

cheers

fermi

Variegated water iris, Iris laevigata

cheers

fermi

Sorry, I didn't see your question about Iris taochia.  Say 20 cm. Maybe a little taller. 

Bob

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the info; that's a bit taller than the species I've got.

More Spuria Iris are in bloom; these brown ones are possibly 'Intensity;

cheers

fermi

Gorgeous iris!  What amazing coppery tones! 

My I. taochia is a little more modest in size, about 10 cm.

Yes, Lori, I went through a phase of being very keen on brown iris but stopped at 3 brownish sprurias .

Behind the yellow and brown spurias a seedling appeared a couple of years ago and today the first flower opened - a golden yellow which has the shape of 'Intensity' and a deeper gold than the other "parent"!

cheers

fermi

Yet another spuria iris, 'Barleycorn'

A month ago, the first flowers on Iris halophila opened on stems about 12" (30cm) high:

and last week a second "round" of flowers started on new stems about 24" (60cm) high!

cheers

fermi

I found what Archibald's seed list said about Iris taochia, on the SRGC website. "A choice, compact, local iris from igneous slopes in a small area NE of Erzurum. Prominent, broad foliage & branched stems reaching about 30cm. with flowers in dusky shades of both yellow & purple with yellow-haired beards." 

According to Wikipedia, Erzurum is even colder than my back yard. Record lows of 40 below. (F or C)

Another iris thing. Picture of Iris paradoxa after the sudden dip to -23C (or whatever, it was cold). The insistence on maintaining green leaves throughout a cold winter seems perverse. There aren't any other irises here that are wintergreen. It seems unlikely that the plants of photosynthesizing at this time, but what do I know. (I was going to post a bunch of pictures here, but it occurred to me that all the species look the same in winter. The leaves do eventually become tattered.)

Bob, I can't imagine temps of -23 C at this time of the year (rarely gets that cold here in most years), but today we woke to -10 C. I am testing several Pacific Coast Iris species and hybrids for cold hardiness in southwestern Nova Scotia and have similar challenges: evergreen foliage through the winter. This year I'll be covering the plants with fir boughs. In some winters, snow cover should be enough to insulate them from the worst of winter chills, but snowfall is unreliable at best here in the southwestern part of the province.... chances are that we will have a green Christmas, and won't have any significant snowfall until early January.

By the way, the Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris just opened their seed exchange. I had trouble accessing the current exchange from their website, but managed to get through via a link on their facebook page.

You also have to be able to imagine +17C 48 hours before that, and 48 hours after that, too....... 

With the oncocyclus, green leaves throughout a cold winter just seem perverse, unless somehow they are photosynthesizing, which seems unlikely. No one ever talks about these irises in language to which I can relate (I don't really understand terms like "drainage", "protection from winter wet" "protection from summer rain", etc.), so I just don't know. 

PCIs, though, do need their leaves over the winter, true? Basically their growing season? I know that DBG has grown Iris innominata, douglasiana, and tenax. Don't know if they still do. My conditions are all wrong for them; I've only grown one, I. hartwegii ssp. pinetorum, which flowered here, and then died. 

I can sympathize with the temperature fluctuations. Just two days ago we were at +16 C, then the drop. The problem here is winter wet. With the recurrent freeze thaw cycles, combined with snow or rain in late fall/early winter,and late winter early spring, there are quite a few otherwise cold hardy plants that just surrender. 

My Iris experience is limited to few species and hybrids (chrysographes, ensata, germanica, pseudacorus, sibirica, and now some of the Pacific species & hybrids). I'll be playing with some open pollinated seed of Iris hartwegii var. australis. In spite of being a real southerner, it is supposed to be quite cold tolerant due to the altitude of its range. I'd like to get my hands on some hand pollinated or wild collected seed to be more sure of the parentage, but I'm happy to have the garden collected open pollinated seed to test.

There is an article on cold tolerance in the latest Pacific Iris Almamac. One of the contributors to the article was Arthur Goodwin (resident of western Denver, CO). He grows them on the south side of his house, close to the foundation, and mulches heavily with light fluffy material each winter. He has had some luck with a hybrid called 'Wild Survivor"- I missed it in the seed exchange a few years back! Anyhow, from my limited experience, there are a few species, and hybrids worth trying. I have a few in the landscape now, all planted on the southern side of large rocks to protect them from our north winds. The open pollinated seedling of 'Harland Hand'- a selection of I douglasiana did really well this year. I am looking forward to see how Iris innominata, Iris tenax  and a hybrid of the two do. I'm making sure that there are no chances for puddles to build around the plants. Our rains are heavier in the autumn, and spring, so the plants seem to grow well. and stop active growth when temperatures drop. There was some frost burn on plants that were in the ground last winter, but then again temps dropped to -25 C for several weeks last winter, and I had given the plants no protection at all. Iris tenax and douglasiana are supposed to be rugged, and I look for seed from higher elevations for the others.

It never rains in the winter here. It's so dry here that weather people add up the snow that falls from November to the end of February as "moisture", probably to make Denver seem not so desert-like, though the snow has no effect on plants other than insulation. 

I understand that the 'voodoo horticulture" technique I use with the oncocyclus seeds can be done on other irises as well. Other than oncocyclus, and the I. hartwegii, I've only grown three irises from seed: Iris carthaliniae, I. loczyi, and I missouriensis. (I also dug up a plant of the last, only time I've ever done that; it was growing in the middle of the Boreas Pass Road and kept getting flattened by SUVs, and I felt sorry for it. It's still in the garden here.)

Just out of curiosity - not related exactly to growing Iris -  to what depth does the ground freeze there (if it does)?

Depends on the winter. It's impossible to characterize winter here, now, since it seems to have changed, with constant snow cover the last seven or eight winters. There's no snow now, and it's fairly pleasant out (6:30 p.m.). Barely froze last night, froze more seriously the night before, might not freeze for the next week, then might get to a zillion below (C or F), and then again it might not. We've had snow in May every year but one since the turn of the century. Before that, once since I moved here (1961). So who knows.

The troughs, of which there are about three dozen, are frozen solid all winter, as are the pots containing dwarf conifers. Not frozen yet, though. 

The snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus Hiemalis Group (whew), is still blooming. 

I said it never rains here in the winter, so yesterday it rained. Not much. I thought the world was coming to an end. 

Status of iris seedlings grown using the forced germination method. I waited for months for something to happen, and then I was told I was doing it all wrong. When I followed the instructions, I got results. Imagine that. 

First picture shows various species, Iris lycotis, urmiensis, demavendica, sofarana, elegantissima, from Archibald collections (so, more old seed). Second picture, Iris lortettii and I. haynei, probably from Shahak seed. Now that I've been successful getting these things to germinate, and live (so far), I can see why some gardeners devote themselves to growing only one kind of plant.

Bob,

that's an impressive number of seedlings! 

Our most recent iris to flower is one of the "Eye Shadow" hybrids, 'Kinboshi'

cheers

fermi

This is pseudacorus x ensata? 

I do realize that it's tempting fate by posting pictures of seedlings ....

No iris in flower here, everything is under 15cm of snow (at least). At least I can go look at the seedlings about once every hour, until the snow stops, some time in May.