Oncos 2013

[udo]

Dirk
Does your barnumae have yellow hairs on the fall - if not the plant is probably polackii.

Arthur, i can't see a sign from Iris polackii.
Here my last flowers for this spring:
Iris elegantissima in two forms
Iris barnumae ( or a hybrid with this )

[Alex]

Some first flowerings for me: iris barnumae urumiensis and I. gatesii, the latter one of the largest flowers I have ever seen! The red plant label in the bottom pic is a standard size to give some scale.

Alex

[Mark Griffiths]

stunning plants all!

[Peterwg]

Something is happening in the antipodes - at last!   First, an Iris atropurpurea from 1986 Shahak seed cultured about 20 months ago.   It is the reddest atropurpurea I've seen in the flesh, and I understand why it is called argaman in Hebrew.   Second, we have a lovely hybrid from Pat Toolan - PT0434, grows well, flowers well (Many, many thanks, Pat!).  What more could I ask for? Hope you all enjoy them as much as me!

[arillady]

Peter in New South Wales you are so ahead of plants here in South Australia. Great photos and great irises 

Now a plea to all who have shown oncos this year to write a short article on your way of growing them for the Aril Society International Yearbook which is so behind at  present.

I will gratefully accept ANY ARTICLE AND PHOTOS on behalf of ASI - or Thomas Fietz who is a member here too.

[arillady]

Finally the arils have begun flowering in this wet cold winter.
PT0407 Iris haynei hybrid x Iris atropurpurea
PT0428 Iris samaraie x Iris atropurpurea
Iris atropurpurea looking too blue and is darker in better light.
Somehow this got mixed with the atropurpurea rhizomes
This last one I need to check as it is in front of Iris jordana but the tag is just about indecipherable.

[BULBISSIME]

Pat and peter, nice to see the onco flowers back 
It's a good thing that earth has 2 hemispheres ! Here, of course, everything is dry and yellow....
I hope to see more in the next days...

[arillady]

Iris atropurpurea from into the sun to then away from the sun to show the colour variation.
The gale force winds the last couple of days was not kind to the species hybrids.
PT0735
PT9904
Better leave it at this in case I go over the limit.

[Peterwg]

Nice flowers, Pat, despite your bad weather.   Here the weather has been generally nice but very windy, windy enough to shred petals and sepals and pull bloomstalks out of the ground on a couple of days.   
Have had several haynei with a surprising amount of variation  - from brownish purple through purple to almost black and variation in signals as well.   My question is:   If I select dark haynei x dark haynei  and bluish haynei x bluish haynei, are the selected offspring still species haynei?
Hope you enjoy them!

[arillady]

Beautiful Peter - what a difference between them all. Even with rain I was able to find some pollen to use this morning on different crosses here. I hope you are pollinating madly. Personally I would try to pollinate similar to keep them close.

[BULBISSIME]

Very nice plants Pat and Peter !
Peter, if you cross Iris haynei with Iris haynei... you'll get Iris haynei, even if colors are same

[Peterwg]

Thanks, Fred and Pat.   I'm asking because I wonder how far selection for different characters (colour, signal, etc.) could be taken within the species before people would have difficulty recognising the flower as Iris haynei.   It is a question that has puzzled me for a very long time.   Perhaps I should try to find out?

Here are two of quite a number of Sharis x hermona from David Shahak seed.   These have mostly large, showy flowers.   Not species, but very nice indeed.

[arillady]

But species crosses as Sharis is a combination of I. lortetii, I. gatesii, I. calcarea and I. susiana from David Shahak in 1975.
Beautiful photos Peter.
Wouldn't a species keep its main characteristics if you are crossing different variations?

[Hillview croconut]

Hi,

I have just come into this thread for the first time for  ages and I see Pat and Peter's plants way out in front of mine. It is still way too cold in Hobart for flowers and the current cold snap won't be making things any better.

Still such stunning plants warms the cockles of my heart. Well done to both of you.

Re species or not species (that is the question) I guess a range of diagnostic features determine speciation and flower colour may be but one. Then there will be a set of parameters within which color may fall. If one exceeds these is this not aberantness (probably a new word!) Rather than a new species?

Cheers, Marcus

[arillady]

A few of the aril species hybrids flowering today.
PT0442
PT0817
I took pollen of 0817 to 0442 but broke the head off 0442 when pollinating - blow.
PT0472
Iris hermona hybrid dark form (?)
PT0421 - love the form of this one and will do more breeding with it.
Local Mediterranean Garden Club members coming tomorrow afternoon to visit so they will have quite a few aril species hybrids in flower.