Reticulate Iris - 2014

[art600]

I was given 'Fabiola' by a kind Forumist  I can find no information on this reticulate iris.

It has an incredibly vibrant flower - will try to capture this if it stops raining.

[YT]

While waiting for Arthur, I'd post a few pictures

Iris reticulata kopetdaghensis (Iris reticulata "Kopet Dag" MCM type)
Iris historio subsp. aintabensis
Iris hyrcana

[David Nicholson]

You really do grow to perfection YT.

[Alan McMurtrie]

First off, if any Reticulata enthusiasts are at the RHS London Plant and Design show Feb 21 and 22 I would love to meet you.  This will be my first time in the UK.  Afterwards I will be heading to Paris, and then up to The Netherlands for the Lentetuin in Breezand, as well as to talk to Reticulata growers.

Personally I don't think much of Fabiola.  Not to knock Ron van Lierop, but Fabiola is just a typical violet Reticulata.  You could easily say I'm biased because I have lots of my own hybrids.  And yes, I have some blues I think are much better.  You be the judge.  The photo of Fabiola was taken at the 2013 Lentetuin.

Ron does have a lovely white sport from Pauline that he has been building up stock of, and he also has a pale yellow sport from Katharine Hodgkin.  Both of those are worth introducing.

Interestingly you can sometimes find a different appearance in my hybrids in Holland.  This difference appears the first bloom after the bulbs return home.  It's something in the soil, perhaps the fertilizer.  By the second year when they are back home they're almost back to normal.  Here's 01-NS-1 in my garden a couple of years ago, and last year in the field in Holland.  This becomes a catch 22 for Dutch bulb growers - are they evaluating what I'm evaluating.  The problem to-date is they don't send me pictures of what they are seeing, or discuss the flowers, they just say which ones they are finished testing.

Occasionally the Reticulatas are in bloom in the field when I'm at the Lentetuin, but more often than not there's only a few varieties showing just a few flowers.  This year promises to be amazing, because I've heard my hybrids have already started in the fields.

I am still mystified as to why Orange Glow (98-OO-1) was rejected.  Yes, Dutch growers say the flowers are too small for the large-scale commercial market, but that should be able to be overcome by creating tetraploids which might be 20-30% larger.   More importantly, I would have thought having something heading toward orange, and with brown markings, would have been a real achievement; but apparently not.

[Alan McMurtrie]

One of my proudest achievements at the moment is 05-HW-1.

Note: the second picture was taken 9 days later (the flower had been protected from the elements, and bees, by an upside down tin can)

[YT]

You really do grow to perfection YT.

Thank you David! As always I'm saying, the latitude and the number of sunny days in winter here are different to yours. You would be growing them far better than me if we were at the same place

One of my proudest achievements at the moment is 05-HW-1.
Note: the second picture was taken 9 days later (the flower had been protected from the elements, and bees, by an upside down tin can)

Alan, that is the really nice one. Thank you for sharing.

[Maggi Young]

First off, if any Reticulata enthusiasts are at the RHS London Plant and Design show Feb 21 and 22 I would love to meet you.  This will be my first time in the UK.  Afterwards I will be heading to Paris, and then up to The Netherlands for the Lentetuin in Breezand, as well as to talk to Reticulata growers.

Hope you have a great visit to London, Alan - be sure to point out to folks that you are a Canadian - there seems to be some confusion down there!

Sent to me as "Spotted on Twitter"  : by  AGS ‏@Alpinegardensoc
"......... there's a whole range of these hybrid iris bred by an American including 'Orange Glow' and 'Sea Green' they're stunning" 

Err, no, that would be a CANADIAN, Alan McMurtie ! http://www.reticulatas.com     
At least they got it right about the Iris!

[art600]

First off, if any Reticulata enthusiasts are at the RHS London Plant and Design show Feb 21 and 22 I would love to meet you.  This will be my first time in the UK.

Alan

Are you there both days?  I can only go on the Friday as Saturday is a Snowdrop Day/

Hope to see you there.

Arthur

[udo]

One of my proudest achievements at the moment is 05-HW-1.

Note: the second picture was taken 9 days later (the flower had been protected from the elements, and bees, by an upside down tin can)

Hello Alan,
a really wonderful cross; Congratulations!!

[Brian Ellis]

One of my proudest achievements at the moment is 05-HW-1.

Stunning Alan, and I think it is beautiful in the second shot too.  What a joy they are to see, well done.

[David Nicholson]

..........................Interestingly you can sometimes find a different appearance in my hybrids in Holland.  This difference appears the first bloom after the bulbs return home.  It's something in the soil, perhaps the fertilizer.  By the second year when they are back home they're almost back to normal............

Some beauties there Alan.

Interesting what you said in the quote above. 'White Caucasus' is always described as "crystalline" white (or a similar description) in the UK trade, from Dutch stock but I've always found it to have a distinct and marked blue tinge. I wonder if you have hit on the reason?

[Cyril L]

Spectacular flower Alan.  I hope it will become available soon.

[Alan McMurtrie]

Yes, I will be at the show both days.  No specific plans.  Would be happy to give a talk, but perhaps that will be next year.  The idea is simply talk to people about my hobby and promote my hybrids.  It's a bit of a catch-22.  For the past 16 years I have ben trying to get Dutch growers interested in growing my hybrids.  Last year with John Amand's help I tried to interest some small-scale growers, in hopes of getting some of my hybrids to market sooner -- some of the ones the large-scale growers aren't interested in.  However it seemed in part those small-scale growers didn't feel there was a strong demand for Retics.  In a sense I understand.  A new Reticulata usually means just another blue: case in point Fabiola, Blue Note, Carolina...  so I need to find out how to get the word out about what I've done.  I don't want to tease people -- look at what I've got; sorry it won't be commercially available for 15 years.  This is where we could be selling 100 to 1000 of some varieties in just a couple of years.

It's taken 16 years to build up the stocks of several of my hybrids to over 100,000 bulbs each.  This could have been accomplished quicker if the grower said he was interested sooner.  I would have been able to supply him with more bulbs.  Instead he just kept being noncommittal.

Here is a photo of the original White Caucasus.  In the enlargement you can see true white beside the yellow ridge, and an ever-so-slightly greyed white of the rest of the flower.  This of course would normally be purple, but something has happened to the chemical composition of the anthocyans to have them reflect white to our eyes rather than purple.

There were some tissue cultured bulbs created about 10 years ago.  I'm not sure if they are the reason for the blue tinge, or if it was something in the soil where the bulbs were grown.

Here's a picture of Down To Earth (94-AT-2) the first year it bloomed upon being returned to Toronto, Canada (2009)
The second year blooming here it was more or less back to normal (2010).  What a difference between the two.

Here's a picture of Down To Earth posted by Jan Jacobsen this year to Bulborum in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202288917479099&set=gm.723963964300568&type=1&theater

[udo]

Unfortunately, I must agree to Alan, with the felt low need for Reticulata-Iris to you. If I offer these irises at plant markets, refusal often comes because of missing flowers in the second year. Also with me die plants often die after the blossom and only the bulbills are still alive. Though they often flowers after 2-3 years, but this work many do not want to come along.
Besides, these are in form and colour, nevertheless, such marvellous plants.
Here a very nice hybrid of you:
Iris 'Coffee Brown'

[Alan McMurtrie]

Iris 'Coffee Brown' is 98-PR-2: http://www.reticulatas.com/HTML%20Pages/98-PR-2.html

Unfortunately Dutch bulb growers would say it's far too small for the large-scale market

I would like to get more hybrid vigour into my hybrids.  In part I was hoping by growing them from seed in Toronto, Canada this would happen naturally (as opposed to Holland's less harsh conditions).  Of course a key factor is the quality of the parents and their potential.  Here I am using Iris danfordiae as a key parent in many of my hybrids and we know what a reputation it has for "shattering."  I do see quite a range of variation in how well my hybrids do, from ones that bloom once and they are gone, to ones that increase quite well, both in terms of number of bulbs and size of bulbs.

Not all of the hybrids I release will be "perfect," but the goal is to try to keep making them better and improving colour range, etc.

I have plans for where to go from here...

I am hoping a lot of people will be able to enjoy my hybrids in pots, for example in Paris apartments/studios.

Being able to get up close and personal and enjoy Orange Glow, or Avalanche, or a pot with several different varieties while waiting for Spring to start would be wonderful.  Down To Earth is nice in its own right, but having something bright and cheery would be nice even if it means they get tossed when they are finished.  This is where it becomes a question of what colours, and colour combinations are the public most attracted to.

I want to give the public lots of choices.  Certain ones will appeal to people at different times.  The Dutch just want to grow just a couple of varieties in large quantities.  If they could I think they would want to grow just one variety.  It would make planting, digging, and cleaning so much easier.  Of course that doesn't truly make sense from many points of view.  Bottom line: that's very short sighted thinking.