Reticulate Iris 2010

[Maggi Young]

Somewhere on the Forum there is a great retic ID sheet by Hristo, though I cannot find it now, but I found the pic lurking in a file....

It's a little wider than usual.....

[Tecophilaea King]

Somewhere on the Forum there is a great retic ID sheet by Hristo, though I cannot find it now, but I found the pic lurking in a file....

It's a little wider than usual.....

Aaccording to the retic ID sheet, our so called JS Dijt retic in # 385 looks very much like Harmony.
Does the forum agree or not?  Thanks Maggi for digging up the ID sheet.

[Lesley Cox]

I agree that your 'JS Dijt' is probably 'Harmony' or perhaps (less likely) 'Joyce, 'which is basically the same except the signal stripe ages quickly from orange on opening to yellow in 'Harmony,' staying orange in 'Joyce.' We have never had 'Pixie' as such, in NZ. However, I'd bet my last dollar that all these have come in from Holland and been repacked here by two wholesale firms, so it's possible 'Pixie' has come in wrongly named as something else. Heaven knows several others have come in wrongly named. I imagine 'Pixie' is still relatively uncommon though, compared to 'Harmony' so probably, it's 'Harmony.' 'Harmony is wider than other straight retics because most of those are selected forms of the species whereas 'Harmony' (and 'Joyce') are hybrids between reticulata and histrioides 'Major.'

Dave, your 'Pauline' is wrongly named too. Not sure what it is, but it looks quite close to I. bakeriana so probably a hybrid of it. Looks too dark to be 'Clairette' or 'Springtime though.' If you look very carefully you should be able to count more than 4 sides to the leaves, probably 5-7.

[t00lie]

Dave, your 'Pauline' is wrongly named too. Not sure what it is, but it looks quite close to I. bakeriana so probably a hybrid of it. Looks too dark to be 'Clairette' or 'Springtime though.' If you look very carefully you should be able to count more than 4 sides to the leaves, probably 5-7.

Hello Lesley -- was purchased last year as Pauline  --Had a look at the leaves and yes it has 7 sides .

What ever it is it's a beauty  

Enough from me --- another cracker of a day and i need to continue erecting a shade house i was given last week.

Cheers dave.

[Tecophilaea King]

I agree that your 'JS Dijt' is probably 'Harmony' or perhaps (less likely) 'Joyce, 'which is basically the same except the signal stripe ages quickly from orange on opening to yellow in 'Harmony,' staying orange in 'Joyce.' We have never had 'Pixie' as such, in NZ. However, I'd bet my last dollar that all these have come in from Holland and been repacked here by two wholesale firms, so it's possible 'Pixie' has come in wrongly named as something else. Heaven knows several others have come in wrongly named. I imagine 'Pixie' is still relatively uncommon though, compared to 'Harmony' so probably, it's 'Harmony.' 'Harmony is wider than other straight retics because most of those are selected forms of the species whereas 'Harmony' (and 'Joyce') are hybrids between reticulata and histrioides 'Major.'

You could be right Lesley, about wrongly named varieties, I know both wholesalers as well, and will contact them to remind them of supplying wrongly named bulbs.
Anyway, will let you know, to see when Pixie start flowering shortly, wheather this variety has been screwed up as well.

[PeterT]

 :-XThe varieties are all mixed up here too
you can buy a pot in a garden centre with 3 varieties in,
 and the lable will be a 4th --confusing but great value

[Lesley Cox]

Here is my one and only flower on Iris danfordiae this year. But the leaves are there for the other bulbs so when they die down I'll put them in the garden, deep, deep down and with a heap of high potash fertilizer.


Then a reasonable pot (new bulbs) of 'Gordon'


Today while cleaning up dead pots I found some others in full bud, bought for last year's flowering. As we've mentioned before in this thread, many seem not to come up a second time, if imported from Holland, as these were. However, 'Harmony,' 'Pauline' and Natascha' are doing really well and seem to have all bulbs present. I'll do pics when they're out.

[Ragged Robin]

Looks wonderful with those leaves on the ground Lesley    Plenty of promise in your pot 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks for showing the retics from down under everyone - after all, it's been already six months since we saw ours up here ! 

[Lesley Cox]

It's good to have TWO seasons of nice things, isn't it Luc?

Robin, all those leaves are a bit of a pain really with I. danfordiae. Instead of their getting bigger and stronger and flowering next year, with this species they tend to become even smaller - I had some come up as fine as darning needles once, after about 3 years of non-flowering - and never flower again. It seems the secret is very deep planting and plenty high potash fertilizer so that's where I'll go next time. The bulbs tend to split into ever smaller bulblets.

[PeterT]

about to replant mine Luc  lots of work

[Kees Green]

Hi
Here are a couple more pics, The cantab from the garden has only just bloomed while the others have already finished.
Natascha has 2 blooms today.

[fermi de Sousa]

The first of the "retics" opened on the weekend!
Unfortunately someone got to "George" before I could get a good pic


But "Harmony" fared much better,




cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Who was the culprit Fermi?

'Harmony' is probably the most reliable of all the retics. After two or three years, like here (?) when it's had a while to clump up nicely, it's really very good indeed.

[Tecophilaea King]

As promised here is a pic of retic.Pixie, looks a bit like Harmony, but the colour is more of a royal blue flowers with a glossy purple lip marked orange and white.
I think this is the real Pixie imho and according to the Reticulata ID sheet.