Juno (Scorpiris) - Season 2010

[BULBISSIME]

SUPERB Gerhard !
Do you grow it in glasshouse ?

[PeterT]

Iris palaestina, nearly over, given to me by a kind friend this year. It is related to Iris planifolia and will cross with it.
It was frozen in the sand and I brought it into the house to finish opening. It is also said to be a little tender.
This year I held back its flowering with carefull watering, next year I shall try to have it flower before winter starts.
I find that prolonged freezing of a juno flower, when it starts to open, will kill the bud; which then rots and the rot kills the whole plant. I did manage to prevent this with I planifolia last year but the plants were set back.

Most years I have one or other of the physocaulons (rosenbachiana group) flower in November. This year I have managed to keep their shoots just level with the top dressing. Just as a juno flower prevented from opening will die and rot, a juno into top growth will wither if it does not have enough water to cary on growing.
As the bulbs and tubers are annual, this is usually disastrous.

[arillady]

Uhm ... I better dig up my junos in one patch before the rain and heat destroy them.

[Otto Fauser]

Peter , nice to see your I. palaestina in flower . I once flowered it in 2 years from seed , but that was 41 years ago .Maybe I was more clever then or the climate was more suitable  ?

    Pat , I have started to lift some Junos from the open ground , we have had the wettest winter/spring/early summer for about 20 years and now heat .However with so many years of drought here ,all my gardening friends commented that we will never complain about too much rain again .

[arillady]

Otto we too have had lots of late rain after drought - good to know that you are lifting your junos too.

[Hans A.]

Peter, wonderful picture of Iris palaestina and the masses of snow - same species here in flower (pressed by Tulipa saxatilis).

[BULBISSIME]

You're early Hans   
Nice to see this species flowering, and big plant 

[PeterT]

Thanks Hans,
I should have taken the picture the day before though. The flower on mine reminded me a little of Iris vartinii with its blue veining. Your plant is much whiter and looks very healthy. Do different populations have distinct colours?

[Hans A.]

Thanks Fred and Peter. There are different clones planted together so it looks like a big plant . The colour varies a bit (nearly white/pale yellow, some with a bluish pattern) - sorry I do not know how the populations vary in nature (think Oron posted once pictures of a population) - our israelian forumist might know it.

[Miriam]

Very nice plants Peter and Hans! Here it is still not in flower.

Iris palaestina flowers are white to yellowish. In the southern populations in Israel (northern parts of the Negev desert), it becomes more bluish.
This bluish form (I.palaestina var. caerulea) is actually considered by Mathew to a separate species - Iris postii, which is also found in the eastern arid parts of Jordan, the Syrian desert and western Iraq.
Iris postii is related to Iris palaestina and Iris regis-uzziae.

[PeterT]

Thankyou Miriam,
 both Hans plants and mine have blue markings, Hans's on white or cream and mine on yellow.
Does var caerulea /postii have a blue ground instead of the yellow or cream? or do the blue markings merge together?

[Oron Peri]

Very nice plants Peter and Hans! Here it is still not in flower.

Iris Palestine flowers are white to yellowish. In the southern populations in Israel (northern parts of the Negev desert), it becomes more bluish.
This bluish form (I.Palestine var. Carola) is actually considered by Mathew to a separate species - Iris post ii, which is also found in the eastern arid parts of Jordan, the Syrian desert and western Iraq.
Iris post ii is related to Iris Palestine and Iris regicide.

Hi Miriam

I must disagree with this observation:

In my opinion the Bluish forms that are found in the northern Negev Desert are intermediate forms between I. Palestina and Iris reggis-uzziae, that is the area where populations overlope.
Iris postii grows much further to the east mainly in the eastern Jordan deserts, in Mafraq and Azraq, it is a smaller species, with dark pink/purple flowers with different structure to the flower.
There is quite a good picture of it at Dawud M.H Al-Eisawi's book: Wild Flowers of Jordan.

Bluish colored I. palaestina can appear very rarely in the Israeli northen populations, last year i have found 3 plants which i have shown here but these where the only ones in between thousands of typical colored flowers.

[Miriam]

Hi Miriam

I must disagree with this observation:

In my opinion the Bluish forms that are found in the northern Negev Desert are intermediate forms between I. Palestina and Iris reggis-uzziae, that is the area where populations overlope.
Iris postii grows much further to the east mainly in the eastern Jordan deserts, in Mafraq and Azraq, it is a smaller species, with dark pink/purple flowers with different structure to the flower.
There is quite a good picture of it at Dawud M.H Al-Eisawi's book: Wild Flowers of Jordan.

Hi Oron,

This is what written in the Red Book by Shmida

By the way, David says Toda for the parcel

[kelaidis]

It looks as though I can squeeze this through in this year (as the new year fast approacheth): after all the rare junos pictured on this site, I hesitate to show pix of a mere Iris bucharica, but these pictures were taken in a park: I doubt that there are many parks anywhere where you can find literally thousands of Iris bucharica clumping up so nicely...and there are quite a few other kinds of junos that were planted here as well. The park is called Centennial Park, in downtown Denver. Alas! It is likely going to be decommissioned fairly soon since it was put in an area with no parking and difficult access. It was meant to be a formal garden utilizing low water plantings--and the bulbs just love it. I am even including a shot of tulips at the end to show just how well things naturalize there...but the lavish use of Iris bucharica is my favorite part: we have divided them and made some spectacular plantings at Denver Botanic Gardens too I shall share anon (once I find those blasted pictures!)...

[PeterT]

A wonderfull set of pictures Kelaidis. bucharica is a great plant and not to be belittled!