Oncoseason 2010

[BULBISSIME]

Fantastic Luc !!
I. iberica ssp elegantissima is stuning, and I'm jealous because I don't have success with it... I never got any flower and this is one of my favourite ones 
How do you grow it ??

Your I. sari manissadjani looks quite different from mine, so I have to make some more investigations about this species....

Iris antilibanotica is flowering now

[PeterT]

Amazing Fred, Luc, I am quite coveteous of your elegantissima and antilibanotica,
here are my 3rd and 4th onco species to flower this year, and please correct me if I get any names wrong. I think they are I jordana, it is flowering for the 2nd time in three years, and sari in another form flowering its first time for me bought one or two years ago
Peter
P.S. found that this is not jordana but lycotis and I have amended the name on the picture.
 Peter

[BULBISSIME]

I agree with your species names Peter !
Great plants !

[PeterT]

Thanks Fred, my plants are not as good as yours yet, but I'm working on it!

[Hans A.]

Fred, Luc and Peter - thanks for showing such wonderful pictures of stunning plants - Fred the quality of your pictures is out of this world.  

Luc, do not know how Freds I. sari manissadjani looks like, but also this I am growing (ex Ruksans) is different to yours - darker and much smaller. I envy your results with Iris iberica ssp. elegantissima - here it is a delicate plant and very shy flowering.

Peter - I normally tend to agree with Fred , but I am not sure about your Iris jordana - without reading the name my first thought was Iris iberica ssp lycotis.

[BULBISSIME]

Well Hans,  my manissadjani is page 12  and is also from Ruksans !!!

Here is Iris jordana, and now, I think Peter's plants could be something else, as the falls are quite different.

Where does your plant come from ?

[Maggi Young]

I see that Hendrik also pictures a form of  manissadjani further down page 12 from Freds....

[Hans A.]

  - here is mine (reply 66 - first sari): http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1411.60

[LucS]

Luc, do not know how Freds I. sari manissadjani looks like, but also this I am growing (ex Ruksans) is different to yours - darker and much smaller. I envy your results with Iris iberica ssp. elegantissima - here it is a delicate plant and very shy flowering.

My plant came form Janis R. with collection N° BATM353 (Gurun Turkey). Janis says that the wild plants are very variable.

[LucS]

Fantastic Luc !!
I. iberica ssp elegantissima is stuning, and I'm jealous because I don't have success with it... I never got any flower and this is one of my favourite ones 
How do you grow it ??

Fred,
The plants are planted in mesh baskets (the type used in ponds) so that the roots can penetrate the surrounding compost. All compost is very sandy/gritty. The frame with the baskets is about 40cm deep and made inside a standard glasshouse (2x8 m). About 30% of the sides are open to give good ventilation.
Last winter these plants were not protected from the frosts we had.
I stop watering the moment the leaves show brown tips to give the plants the dry summer dormancy they need. The compost dries out in about 3-4 weeks.

[LucS]

This is an other Iris paradoxa I grow.
Can I call it I. paradoxa var. atrata ??

[BULBISSIME]

I prefer Iris paradoxa, nothing else to add  
When we see plants in the wild, we could give them hundreds of var, form, cv.... labels... I think it's too much in most of cases.

But you know, it's only my point of vue  

Anyway, tank's Luc for all your cultural informations

[BULBISSIME]

Does anybody have measured the Onco roots length in culture ?
And check if most of them will die in the summer or remain dormant and still alive, to elongate more next season ?

[Regelian]

Fred,

I have just planted out some potted arils and noted that the plants seem to grow a new root system each season.  The previous years roots were still there, but desicated and dead.  They seem to only act as an anchor after their season.  Also, although I am not 100% sure, there seems to be two seasons of root growth; the first in Winter, as the plant comes into growth, and a second as the new growths start to develope in the late winter and early spring.

Just some observations,

Jamie

[arillady]

I agree with Jamie with the early autumn root growth but as mine are then planted I am not digging up any to check roots again in late winter. Some roots seem to over summer a little too. As I dug up about half of my arils last November I have noticed that those left insitu and under the raised galvanised iron sheeting have come back well and in more growth than the dug arils.