Iris and some Irids 2008

[olegKon]

Thanks Rafa & Lesley fo help and valuable information

[Paul T]

Isn't Iris sanguinea a red-purple with much wider falls than that Rafa?  Or is that just the form which was here in Aus?  I used to grow it but have never found it again to replace it when I lost it a few years ago.  What I had as sanguinea looked nothing like the pic labelled Iris ensata.  I would have thought that was an Iris sibirica myself.

John,

The gold foliaged iris are quite interesting.  I like variegates myself, but like Lesley I find that the gold foliages toast very easily in the sun here.

[David Nicholson]

Iris thompsonii

I have just potted-on a batch of seedlings of Iris thompsonii from seed which I thought I had received from the last SRGC Seed Ex but I see it wasn't listed-maybe Lesley sent them to me- and I thought I should find out a little about the species. There was no mention in Brian Mathew's 'The Iris' and on first look I couldn't find it in the Iris Species Database http://www.badbear.com/signa/signa.pl?Introduction   . After a detailed look I found it registered as a hybrid between Iris innominata and I douglasiana. Could anyone tell me if the taxonomists have recently re-classified it please?

[Diane Whitehead]

I collected Iris thompsoni seed in northern California last year and sent
the seeds to some forumists and maybe some exchanges. 

Botanists are divided as to whether it should be a species or considered
a natural hybrid.

There is information about it here:  http://www.pacificcoastiris.org/framewld.html
Click on "Wild PCI Hybrids" in the list at the left of the screen.

Here is a photo taken in the Smith River canyon:

[Lesley Cox]

David, I greew I. thompsonii about 4 years ago from Archibald seed, but the couple that germinated died within 6 months so no, you didn't get the seed from me. I think JCA had it as a smallish PC iris. I don't recall there was any mention of hybridization in the description.

[David Nicholson]

Thanks for the Link Diane, it's a very useful and interesting Site. By the way, I've found the seed listed in the last SRGC Seed Ex. It's in the Wild Section, at the back of the list, number 4174, and you did send it Diane, so thank you. Whatever it is Iris thompsonii looks a very nice plant and I hope to be able to post a picture of it in a couple of years time! 

[olegKon]

Can anyone help with the ID of this iris I received as a seedling some years ago named I.forrestii. Yoday it open the flower for the first time. Very nice but not forrestii

[Rafa]

It looks like Iris ensata var. spontanea, very beautiful plant

[arisaema]

Thank you both, I was just about to post this one:

[olegKon]

Thanks Rafa. You are a real expert

[Lesley Cox]

I agree with Rafa. So much nicer than the modern ensata hybrids with their big, floppy, coarse flowers.

[Rafa]

Thanks Rafa. You are a real expert

hahah thank you Oleg, but I am just a newbie .

Lesley you are right... I think it's not possible to us to make better what the nature create... artificial hybrids don't interest me at all.

[David Nicholson]

Since I had to dodge the monsoon showers and go out to the greenhouse to take a pic of some Lilium seedlings I thought I would take one also of one of my Iris decora seedlings.

These are from seed Lesley sent to me and were sown as a batch of ten on 15 May 2007. All ten germinated but I lost a couple over Winter (probably kept them a little too dry!), and gave one to my sister-in-law who promptly killed it. The remaing seven are doing well and I hope to see a flower next year, am I being a little optimistic Lesley? A second batch of ten sowed earlier this year is coming along fine.

[David Nicholson]

Before someone, rightly, tells me I don't know my 'r's' from my elbow I've just edited the above post where I called Iris decora 'decorum', but can't see how to amend the same mistake in my picture file title. It's time I showed a little more decorum  

[Lesley Cox]

But decorum is so DULL David.

You can indeed, reasonably expect a flower next year. I had a seedling of just 18 months, flower last summer, the only one in a potful of seedlings to do so, but showing that it's possible, especially, I imagine, as yours are potted individually - not the competition my little one had.

Iris decora is said to be short-lived. I'm not finding this - my two plants are now 10 years old - and as an extablished clump they can make 150 flowers or more on at least 30 stems, so it's a great plant for either sunny garden or a pot.

Seed anyone? I have some available now.