Flowers and foliage April 2008

[Lvandelft]

Dimitri, these are beautiful wild forms.
I think the hybridizers would have saved lots of time and money when they first would have
gone to your steppes.
The fourth picture (nr. 1) I would give a name. It is stunning!
What is the height of it?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Absolutely stunning Iris Dimitri !!
Never saw anything like them : I would like 1 - 3 and 5 in my garden, not in the steppe....

[Viola]

To time bloom lots Daphne in my garden.


Daphne retusa
Daphne genkwa

Karl

[ruweiss]

Dimitri,hard to believe,that these Iris pumila are wild plants.Such outstandig colours!
Thank you so much for showing them to us.

[ruweiss]

Maggi,
ZZ and I are friends since more than 25 years, it was not so easy like nowadays to visit him and the
other Czech rockgardeners behind the iron curtain.But nevertheless the exchange of plants and seeds
was quite intensive and I owe a lot of 'goodies' to their generousity.A good experience were also our
mutual trips to Turkey and in advanced age I remind about them with great pleasure.
The picture shows the maestro in action in November 2006.

[Lesley Cox]

Dimitri, could you post these gorgeous iris pics to the Bearded Iris page as well? They would go nicely with Kata's lovely forms and give a good comparison with other small kinds for iris addicts, such as myself. Thank you.

[HClase]

Going back to weedy Corydalis: mine, mostly Janis Ruskan's 'Penza Strain' of C. solida have flowered well for about 5 years, and double each year underground, but never formed seeds as far as I can see.  I suppose it's something to do with pollinators - does anyone know what pollinates them.  I guess there are not many insects around here at that time of the year anyway.  These aliens all flower a month before any local native plants, which obviously know better.  Here's how far my earliest Corydalis have got by today, I suppose they just qualify in the "foliage" section!

[Oakwood]

Luit! you're right! It's all the forms made by Nature that I'm collecting in steppes around my native city during 10 years and most beautiful clones were found along the Azov Sea coast steppes.
The height of the form 1 is up to 15 cm as another forms too.
About naming - it would be smthng like cherry and ice-cream 

Luc! Will it grow and bloom perfectly in your rainy climate?? cause they all like hot and dry position in garden and not mild winter otherwise it will rot! 

Lesley! I'll try to post these pics in Iris page too with some additional I. pumila forms. It's not all wild collected forms of this species that I have. They are about 15 natural clones at me now.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Luc! Will it grow and bloom perfectly in your rainy climate?? cause they all like hot and dry position in garden and not mild winter otherwise it will rot! 

It was wishful thinking on my part Dimitri  !
I do/did grow some I. pumila at some stage - and not unsuccesfully - so I would be optimistic 

[Lvandelft]

It was wishful thinking on my part Dimitri  !
I do/did grow some I. pumila at some stage - and not unsuccesfully - so I would be optimistic 

With me too, Dimitri. Iris pumila vars. and I. suaveolens, both forms, grow excellent in our sandy soil. 

[Paul T]

Dimitri,

I'm rather taken with that #1 iris as well (the one titled that, not the first pic posted.... although that one isn't bad either).  I never realised that naturally they occurred like that.  The #1 I'd be very pleased to have growing in my garden too.

[annew]

Karl, your Daphne genkwa is super - so many flowers!

[Viola]

Anne, many friends think it a Syringa.

Karl

[Oakwood]

Yes, sorry to all. May be I'm wrong about proliferacy of I. pumila. I heard from one gardener he collected this species in sandy soils in Astrakhan steppes (lower reaches of Volga) and it grew very deeply there. The rhizomes were not at soil level.

Paul! I think that is mutation in color for form #1, rather it lacks yellow pigment there. Otherwise it would be yellow with brown-red spot on falls.  

[Yuri Pirogov]

A bit more Iris pumila. Those are on pasture at sandy soil near Irgakly, Stavropol region, North Caucasus