Iris Lady Beatrix Stanley

[mark smyth]

Does anyone know a source for Iris Lady Beatrix Stanley? Preferably home grown.

I did find a source on the Netherlands but they wanted £10 to post the bulbs to the UK

[PeterT]

try here
http://www.choicelandscapes.org/

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Rob Potterton also lists it Mark, don't know if home grown or not though ?

[Lesley Cox]

My Iris 'Sheila Ann Germaney' which I've had since 1993, didn't flower this year and now the leaves are well up I see they are horribly virused, a problem I've never had before with reticulate irises. I've already dug and destroyed them, tears running down my face. It's not replaceable in New Zealand. I have a few very thin and healthy leaves from previous rice bulblets so am keeping those well isolated but I would like to know where the virus came from.

[PeterT]

were the plants very dry when they came into growth Lesley?

[Lesley Cox]

were the plants very dry when they came into growth Lesley?

I don't think they would have been Peter. They're outside in a raised bed and just for once we had a dampish summer/autumn and quite a lot of rain through winter as well. I only had a couple of flowers on 'Katharine Hodgkin' and none at all on winogradowii, though their foliage looks healthy and strong.

[PeterT]

It was just a thought, drought can simulate the mottling effects of virus on reticulata leaves when they start growth. I once discarded some pots before I knew about this.

[WimB]

My Iris 'Sheila Ann Germaney' which I've had since 1993, didn't flower this year and now the leaves are well up I see they are horribly virused, a problem I've never had before with reticulate irises. I've already dug and destroyed them, tears running down my face. It's not replaceable in New Zealand. I have a few very thin and healthy leaves from previous rice bulblets so am keeping those well isolated but I would like to know where the virus came from.

  That's terrible, Lesley. Even more so since you can't replace them. Here the most obvious vector for plant viruses are aphids, but certain nematodes which live in the ground can be vectors too.

[PeterT]

What I dont understand is why, when these plants are already in New Zealand, they are not kept circulating by the horticulturalists and gardeners. Then it would just require a request for bulbs at a local garden club or nursery in New Zealand.

[Lesley Cox]

All the 'Sheila Ann Germaney' in NZ came from a single bulb I imported in 1993. I brought it home with me and that was the last time (1993) that we were allowed to bring in bulbs without all the present regulations. It took a couple of years before its seasons were properly turned around and from then on I've had a reasonablely nice little patch of it, and have distributed a few whenever possible, but probably not more than say 20 in total. Hopefully these are still around and increasing but I've never seen anyone with a bulb for sale or swap at any of our shows, salestables, weekends etc. Even KH is virtually never available, or winogradowii, except a few I've supplied myself, so where they're going I don't know. It is a sad fact that some NZ alpine growers tend to keep material to themselves rather than sharing it around. I think this is a dangerous and foolish practice for the very reason stated above. We can't replace from overseas now. Quantities of reticulatas come in from Holland each year to a couple of wholesalers but always the same old vars. Usually they are Harmony, JS Dijt, Pauline, Gordon, Cantab and that's about it except sometimes now, danfordiae and Natascha. Never SAG, KH Winogradowii or histrioides or its forms.

For some reason the wholesalers are allowed to import from Holland, in quantity and without the regulations that apply to other countries and to small importers yet it is from Holland that diseased stock arrives, while people like Marcus Harvey in Tasmania, and many small UK or other bulb growers supply clean and healthy stock. Yet again, I ask, Where's that post about common sense?

[PeterT]

it will turn up then Lesley, in the mean time keep pollinating and raise your own version 

This was on the PBS list this morning from a lady in Auckland:

"Was informed by MAF that evidently the seed I ordered was not allowed,
but was given several options.

First of all I decided it was no good getting all hot under the collar
about it.  So I contacted EPA which is the department responsible for
deciding what is and what is not allowed.

And joy of joys, after several helpful emails, the woman found one of
them was already in New Zealand so will be added to the Biosecurity Index.

She found that in one of the gardening books, so went to some trouble to
find it for me.

I now have ordered 6 books of New Zealand bulbs from the library and
will then order more to see what there is in them as far as Habranthus
and Zephyranthes are concerned.

It made my day."

[Lesley Cox]

Peter, could you let me know (privately) who this person was that posted on the PBS list? I'd like to contact her on the basis that the more people who go the extra mile, the better we'll ALL be with results. The organization who makes the decision about what is and what isn't allowe3d, is ERMA (Environmental Risk Management Authority), so I'm not sute who EPA is.

I suspect she found - or her helpful person found, that what she had ordered was already here under a synonym name, especially if it involved Habranthus/Zephranthes.

[PeterT]

I suspect EPA is a typo Lesley, and yes the plant was recorded in New Zeland already according to what she says, synonoms were not mentioned. I have forwarded your request to her and a link to this page 

[klaasje]

EPA is the new name for ERMA, no typing mistake....

[Lesley Cox]

EPA is the new name for ERMA, no typing mistake....

So what does EPA stand for? What does it mean?