Iris, non-bearded, 2014

[johnralphcarpenter]

Iris lactea is one of the first to flower here.

[David Nicholson]

Very nice Ralph. Quite rare in gardens now I would have thought?

[johnralphcarpenter]

Very nice Ralph. Quite rare in gardens now I would have thought?

Is it? It spreads nicely here.

[arillady]

I love this iris species as it is so tough here and the leaves stay green all summer.

[Lesley Cox]

It's far from common in NZ but I've seen a few plants recently. It's always been a favourite with me for its lovely blue and silvery combination. I grew seeds of a so-called dwarf form a couple of years back but they seem as tall as other forms I have. Not much seed on any of them so far yet I remember my mother regularly had seed on hers years ago.

[Lesley Cox]

I remember a little while ago, perhaps late last year or early this, some small discussion about I. 'Gerald Derby' after I had seen a wonderful, 6ft-wide patch at my friend Susan's garden. Following an Iris seminar at Timaru last weekend (Saturday), when I stayed with a friend for a couple of nights, I received from her an exciting parcel, apparently a bottle of wine, in a cardboard wine box of the kind available from NZ Post, and appropriately heavy at the base of the parcel. I wasn't sure why she'd be sending me wine, but hey, why would I argue?

When I opened the box it wasn't wine after all but not disappointed at all because it was a lovely and quite large plant of 'Gerald Derby.'  It also contained a re-blooming bearded form of a pure gold which I had admired at the local TB trial garden, in bloom mid autumn, and my toothbrush and paste which I'd left behind me. Fortunately I had spares at home.

This autumn seminar is an annual event hosted by the South Canterbury Iris Group of NZIS and always popular and excellent value. I was able to buy I. maritima at the salestable and some others, ate delicious food supplied by local members and was given 2 (!) seeds, all it had produced, of the tiny Iris setosa var arctica forma platyryncha (I think this is right). It grows to only about 6cms in flower, so perfect for a trough. All that combined with a couple of bottles of red wine with my friend and another iris friend before we ate on the Friday evening, made for a lovely weekend catching up and making new friends, as you do.

On the way home on the Sunday I had been invited to call on another attendee at the Seminar because she had a spare plant of Papaver or. 'Patty's Plum' which she offered me. This is a gorgeous form but some offered here have not been true to name and so I was thrilled to get this one.  I felt the weekend made up for some very frustrating events in my life recently.

[arillady]

What an excellent iris weekend Lesley and the extras would have been very welcome.
Just back to Iris lactea - some forms and some years seed is in abundance but other years not so many at all.
I too had the dwarf form and it may have been slightly smaller. There is also difference in the intensity of blue between clumps. This year I must pick a bunch from the different clumps for comparison.

[Lesley Cox]

It would be useful Pat if you could gather different forms of lactea and take a picture of them together. It's such a pretty iris and only rarely seen here.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Wild Iris pseudacorus growing on Romney Marsh, Kent.

[Lesley Cox]

That is very attractive Ralph. Nothing looks better than plants growing in the wild (though our MAF and their cohorts HATE I. pseudocorus because it can clog waterways). I have some seedlings of Iris sibirica from seed collected in north Russia. I need to get a pond and creek built in time to plant them out.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Iris sanguinea I think; or maybe an Iris siberica cv.

[Menai]

A Pacific Coast hybrid. Does anyone recognise it? I was wondering if it could be 'Pinewood Charmer' as illustrated in Stebbings but can't find a photo on the web to compare.

Erle
Anglesey

[mark smyth]

The best we can do is a plant hanging on for grim death, with one flower in ten years if we're lucky - BIGGER SIGH !!

I can beat that! Never had a flower on my I. u. cretensis

[Yann]

Iris Broadleigh 'Sybil'

[WimB]

Iris Broadleigh 'Sybil'

LOL Yann...did you visit Koen's stand at Beervelde 
Beautiful Iris, bought one too!