Reticulate Iris-2013

[Maggi Young]

It's the middle of Reticulata bloom and yesterday we were hit with more than 4cm of snow, then freezing rain overnight, and now it's +2°C and raining.

The upside down dish pans and cans may not look good, but they make a world of difference for hybridizing

That's tough weather for your flowering period, Alan.

[Alan McMurtrie]

This year's bloom has turned out to be a nice long one.  My hybrids from Iris danfordiae are almost all finished.  At a friend's house 20 minutes north by car they are at peak bloom.  Here White Caucasus and related hybrids are just starting -- signalling it won't be long before bloom is over for another year.  But those hybrids have just started so I still have a number of days to enjoy them.

Here are some unusual multicoloured hybrids that are currently blooming

[Gail]

They are nice Alan.
What kind of soil do you grow them in?

[Janis Ruksans]

Alan's 'SEA GREEN' blooms now outside. Really it is even much greener than on picture. Alan's reticulatas better grow outside, but there they are subject of weather fluctuations and subject of rodent attacks (I lost this winter several Crocus stocks grown outside). Greenhouse crops although makes smaller bulbs are much safer.

[Alan McMurtrie]

Sorry for being MIA (missing in action).  Problems with my laptop were solved by having the logic board replaced.

I use what you would term regular garden soil.  In Holland bulbs are grown in sandy loam.  I tried pure coarse sand, but generally the bulbs die out after a few years.  I have tried mixing regular garden soil with about 30 or 50% coarse sand, but haven't yet concluded whether that's any better than regular garden soil.

For those of you favouring pure species, Iran 895 does quite well in coarse sand.  When I moved some bulbs into regular garden soil a number of years ago they died out.  In a sense I should retry the experiment.  Of course there's a lot of things I should try; just not enough hours in the day.

Here also is my Pièce de Résistance.  For a little intrigue, I leave it to you to figure out why

[Gail]

Here also is my Pièce de Résistance.  For a little intrigue, I leave it to you to figure out why

Is that a danfordiae hybrid with standards?

[Otto Fauser]

Alan , is I. kolpakowskiana involved in this hybrid ?--whatever it is a beauty !

[Alan McMurtrie]

No, not danfordiae.  Occasionally standards come back in danfordiae hybrids, but so far they have been slightly reduced in height from what you would find in typical Reticulatas.

Iris kolpakowskiana is a lovely plant, though I find it a bit tricky to keep.  I was surprised to have it bloom this year.  I thought it might have died out.  It is gone from another part of the garden, where it had been for a number of years.

Kolpakowskiana is more closely related to Junos.  It's pollen grains look like soccer balls, just like Juno pollen grains.

Reticulata pollen looks more like wheat kernels.

[art600]

Here also is my Pièce de Résistance.  For a little intrigue, I leave it to you to figure out why

The falls have 'wings'?

[Alan McMurtrie]

Here's one from last year...  Its standards are hanging down!
This is what it looked like when I discovered it amongst some Junos.  The bulbs were just a little too small to bloom this year.
I'm looking forward to seeing it next year.
I believe it gave 14 seeds (they would have been "bee seed"; I would have selfed it if I had been able to)

[Alan McMurtrie]

One of my hybrids photographed in the field in Holland on March 6th.

It may be blue, but it's certainly different from all of the blue Reticulatas in commerce

[fermi de Sousa]

None of my retics are in bloom yet, but Otto brought a wonderful potful (second year in the pot, too!) of iris histrioides'Lady Beatrix Stanley' to the FCHS meeting on Saturday,
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

I have a small number of Alan McMurtrie's hybrids which were imported via Marcus Harvey (when he still had an import house! ) and this year I've got a couple of flowers!
Blue Ice x 2
Dance On - and no, I didn't notice all those earth-mites till I enlarged the pic but they'll be getting a spray when I get home !
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Iris histrio ssp aintabensis (MT4501corrected by Otto)
Retic iris 'Clairette'
cheers
fermi

[Otto Fauser]

Fermi , the details for the Iris histrio var. aintabensis I gave you some years ago are : MT 4501 , col nr. Maras , Turkey .

     MT stands for Mathew & Tomlinson
 my plants flowered nearly 4 weeks ago .