Reticulate Iris - 2015

[David Nicholson]

Mark, I've banged on about this on the Forum quite a few times over the years when I was growing it. It isn't "sparkling white" at all and has never been, it's a very, very pale shade of blue.

[ian mcenery]

My first flower of Iris pamphyllica- thanks Hans

I've photographed it with and without a background as I'm not sure which looks best

[Maggi Young]

Isn't that just so elegant?

[ashley]

Beautiful. 
Does anyone know of a seed source?

[ian mcenery]

Beautiful. 
Does anyone know of a seed source?

Ashley I have sent you a pm

[mark smyth]

Mark, I've banged on about this on the Forum quite a few times over the years when I was growing it. It isn't "sparkling white" at all and has never been, it's a very, very pale shade of blue.

Good to know

[ian mcenery]

Isn't that just so elegant?

Yes Maggi I think it is

[Luc Gilgemyn]

This is what I grow as Iris 'White Caucasus'

[David Nicholson]

Luc, your's looks an awful lot whiter than mine ever did. I wonder if there is more than one clone in circulation. Here's mine from 2012 after which it died on me(probably so fed up with me moaning that it wasn't white!)

[Roma]

Iris 'Frank Elder'

[Mark Griffiths]

hi, can anyone id this Iris? My mother bought it as a "kit" for my wife (bowl, bulbs and compost). I've managed to lift the bulbd and compost complete and put them into a proper pot (with drainage holes).

[Leena]

A nameless McMurtrie- hybrid has survived here now over two winters (though these have been rather mild winters).
This is my earliest iris.

[SJW]

I bought a bulb of Iris winogradowii last autumn, finished flowering but now, looking more closely at the leaves, is it virused?

[Alan McMurtrie]

Luc, your's looks an awful lot whiter than mine ever did. I wonder if there is more than one clone in circulation. Here's mine from 2012 after which it died on me(probably so fed up with me moaning that it wasn't white!)

The Catch-22 is: how was it grown?

I've seen flowers of 98-YS-1 forced in a greenhouse that had pale, pale blue standards and style arms.  In the open they are a beautiful pure white.

Ideally there should be only "one" White Caucasus in circulation.  However that main stock should include two sets of tissue culture material from two different labs.  There is also a separate "original stock," and there is a separate small quantity 'selected form,' which presumably was separated out of the main stock.  I have not seen these for comparison because they aren't blooming when I'm in Holland.  I have seen White Caucasus that Wim de Goede forced in each of a number of years for the Lentetuin ("Spring Garden" flower show in Breezand, Holland held around the beginning of March), and it did indeed look pure white.  I expect the bulbs he used were from the main stock, but I don't know that.

This year for the first time I saw some tetraploid material of Orange Glow.  The flowers were 25% larger, and the intensity of the colour looked to all intents and purposes to be the same (diploid on the left, tetraploid on the right).  Smile: I wonder if the octaploid flowers will be any bigger...  I've been cautioned that for one thing the octaploid material could be slower growing, and thus may not be suitable for commercial propagation.

In this case we are talking about material that has been tissue cultured (then treated with Colchicine).  There was some suggestion that "4 doses of genes" producing the chemicals that reflect orange to our eyes might be more be more intense than 2.  This doesn't seem to be the case, though I didn't see the flowers when they first opened.  The orange, or more appropriately apricot, is very intense when the flowers first open, then it rather quickly fades; hence the name Orange Glow.

[Alan McMurtrie]

New purchases from Dunblane last week
Iris 'Dance On'
Iris 'Vivacious Beginnings' -  Odd name - difficult to say and even harder to spell
Iris winogradowii and Iris winogradowii 'Alba' - not white and I believe it is a hybrid.  It looks as if it has some histrioides blood.

More likely it has Cantab in it.

I and one other person have gotten plants from Cantab x winogradowii

Of course the cross is a sterile dead-end (meaning you can't go any further with the progeny)