Calling Iris aficionados

[Leena]

Thanks fermi, that tall plant is also my favourite. I'll attach one more picture of it's flowers.
I think many time breeders try to achieve big flowers, the bigger the better, but I like smaller flowers better unlike many "normal" people. Many times big flowers can't stand the rain and fall over, they can also look too "plastic".

Iris sibirica hybrid 'Sibirischer Fruhling' flowered for the first time last summer, and I liked it. The flowers were not too big and they were held above the foliage. I hope it will grow well in the future, I'll have to wait and see.

[Lesley Cox]

Interesting Leena to see plants from northern sources, such as Thomas Tamberg in Germany and of course there are the English bred cultivars too, some well known here but more recently, it's American breeding that has been introduced to NZ and probably Australia as well. The Americans seem to love the bizarre and wildly frilly/flounced/fantasy types whereas my tastes are for the more formal and tailored look. I think the above comments about the older forms also apply to the Pacific Coast hybrids which are taking over the world, they being so fertile and widely available. There are certainly some fantastic plants with amazing forms and colour combos yet the older, innominata forms which we grew - and still do when available - are to my mind, the prettier. PC species are not so easily come-by and not so easy to establish either in some cases. As for tall bearded irises, they may as well be Christmas decorations or wedding gowns, with outlandish forms which I avoid like a plague in most cases.  In recent years better-off members of NZIS have taken to going  en mass to the AIS Conventions where they see such plants growing and the Americans BEING Americans are hugely generous with their knowledge, experience and especially their SEEDS, so that these oddball irises are becoming the usual thing here, taken up by local breeders and growers.

[Jupiter]

I went to my little nursery on the weekend and found that I have a pot full of seedlings collected from those plants in my initial posting, last year. I mislabeled them as "unknown water Iris maybe delavayi" and overlooked them. I will be carefully potting them on and looking after them this week.

[Robert]

Jamus,

I have one ancient clump of Iris siberica here at the farm. It is a lovely mutt of sorts (most likely an old named form, the flowers are very simple, elegant, and beautiful). It survives and blooms well if given plenty of water, some afternoon shade from the 38 C + summertime sun, and a top dressing of compost (humus) every few years (i.e. it survives some degree of neglect).

I did not have much luck with them in containers. After 2 years in a 01 gallon container, they did not grow very well. Re-potting, dividing, and fertilizer did not seem to help much. Maybe the soil became too warm? Maybe the containers were too small. I certainly never tried any in a large tub.

I have a batch of seedlings (from a kind forumist) coming on that I plan on planting out in areas of the garden where the soil is rich and well watered. I feel confident that they will grow in a satisfactory way (i.e. good enough for me) despite the heat and dry air during the summer.

Good luck with your plants.