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••••• JUNE 1975 Number 15 The Species Iris Study Group of the American Iris Society Iris pse11dacorus is our "cover girl" for this issue. It is the tallest of irises, and in conditions which suit it, it also is the most vigorous of mses. The foliage is of an attractive blue-green color, and so graceful and handsome is the foliage that the plant makes a striking focal point in the garden even when not in bloom. For the size of the plant, the golden colored blossoms are rather small and fragile, and the standards are so insignificant in size as to pass unnoticed. Even so, the blossom is beautiful both in proportion and in form. Iris pseudacorus is a swamp species; it is native to a large part of the European continent and to the British Isles, from which areas it has been carried by man to North America, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia. In each of those continents, it has escaped from gardens and has "gone wild" along the banks of nearby streams and estuaries. During the 1975 AIS Convention in San Diego, several clones of Iris pseudacorus were in bloom under seedling numbers in the guest iris beds. These were selected by Dave Niswonger, of l\l'issouri, from among the thousands of seedlings which he has grown in an effort to obtain variant forms arid colors of this species for garden use. For a very unorthodox concept of the origin of Iris pseudacorus, see the article by Freeman Yendall which appears on page 406 of this issue. - 385 - THE SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP OF THE AMERICAN IRIS ' SOCIETY SIGNA - - - - Number 15 - - - - JUNE 1975 TABLE OF CONTENTS Bees Did The Trick - Garden News, Ltd. 387 Species in Australian Gardens Bob Raabe- 388 Kew Herbariu m Roy Davidson 390 North American Crested Irises Jean Stevens 392 North American Crested Irises Molly Price 393 AIS Seed Exchange Jean Witt - 394 Iris spuria - Tyge Bucher ,396 Nomenclature of Siberian Irises Currier McEwen 398 Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Bill Gunther 400 Iris Breeding Katherine Heinig - 402 Iris xiphium M. W. Prynne 404 Japanese Irises at the Convention Bill Buck - 405 Abnormal Pseudacorus Freeman Yendall - 406 Tauranga, New Zealand - Freeman Yendall - 407 December, 1878 David Crichton 408 Notes on Growing Variegated Irises Mrs. B. Corneille 410 A Luncheon for Chuck Richard Arango 411 Reclassification of the Spuria Species Jim LaMaster 412 Canyon Garden Bill Gunther 414 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 EDITOR'S NOTE Very literally, we could fill this entire issue of SIGNA with articles and photos about the various tour gardens of the 1975 AIS Convention, and about all the species irises which were in bloom in those gardens, and about the species meeting which was held in the headquarters hotel, and about the species bloomstalks which decorated the speaker's table for that meeting, and about all the surplus species seeds which Jean Witt sent from our Seed Exchange and which were distributed during that meeting. Certainly, from the size of the crowd which attended the Convention's species meeting, one would think that every last member of the species group was there. We were truly honored that Clarke Cosgrove, as President of the American Iris Society, elected to open and close our meeting, and to participate actively during its course. I am glad that a tour of my garden was part of the Convention's agenda, and I appreciate how many of you, while visiting my garden, took the time and effort to introduce yourselves as members of the species group, and to say nice things about SIGNA and/or about the garden. Yes, we could fill this entire issue with articles and photos about the 1975 AIS Convention. We could - but we won't. We won't for the reason that most of you - the members of the species group; the readers of SIGNA - seemingly attended the convention in person. And we don't want to bore you all with a written rehash of what you already saw in person while you were at the convention. So, instead of devoting any space in this issue to any of the gardens which were "on tour" for the 1975 AIS Convention, we instead are giving coverage in this issue to a couple of nearby gardens, both of which grow species irises, and both of which were "missed" by the convention. Neither the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, in Claremont, nor the Canyon Garden, in Santa IV'onica, were included in the convention's itinerary, so very few members of the species group had opportunity to see them. We hope that the articles which begin on pages 400 & 414 will make you wish that the convention's buses had gone to those gardens too Bill Gunther - 386 BEES DID THE TRICK· A chance hybrid, bred by the bees, was the plant that interested American Roy Davidson more than any other when he judged one of the iris classes at the early summer iris show in England. When the British Iris Society heard he was here, they asked him to judge the species classes. He was at once intrigued by the cross between our own wild iris, the common flag, Iris pseudacon1s, and the species Iris chrysographes from western China giving a yellow flower faintly lined with purple, which had occurred as a chance seedling in a nursery in Yorkshire, found and shown by Donald Patton of Chesire. The iris is the hybrid 'HOLDEN CLOUGH', a brown one for the water garden. Incidentally, Roy said he was on a "Postman's Holiday" which · is American for a "Busman's Holiday". The postman goes for a walk, while the busman takes a drive. P ublished by Garden News Ltd. Printed by Woodston Newspaper Services Ltd., Peterboroulth. England. 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 The SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP NI:MBERSHIP: Membership in the Species Iris Study Group is $3.00 per year. Expiration dates for each member are printed on the address label of SIGNA. BACY.. ISSUES OF PUBLICATIONS: Back issues of SIGNA, Nos. 1-14, are available for $2 1 for the set, or $1 . 50 per issue. Back issues of the Species Iris Study Manual are available at $5.00 for the set. PAYlIBNTS: Dues payments and orders for back issues of publications should be sent to the Secy-Treas., H. N. Metcalf, Dept . of Plant & Soil Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59715. Remittances should be made out in favor of "Species Iris Study Group". Items for publication are invited and requested; they should be addressed to: SIGNA , 740 Crest Road , Del Mar, California 92014 . = = = = = = = = 387 - SPECIES IN AUSTRALIAN GARDENS Bo b Raab~ Growers of single "types" of modern iris cultivars, i.e., tall bearded, spuria, Louisiana, Japanese, etc., usually have abbreviated bloom seasons. After the short weeks of bloom, there is li ttle aesthetic appeal amongst the deteriorating foliage until many months later, growth and promise of more bloom recom· mences. The species iris grower, with his gems scat tered in strategic P(!Sitions about the garden, can ap preciate continued pleasure and interest over a far longer period. In my garden near Sydney, Australia, the iris species always are the great "extenders" of the bloom season; this was particularly true during 1974. Here, the weather of the last season favoured the early larger crested irises, particularly Iris japo11ica and its related form, "Darjeeling". The latter, with its Iris confusa parentage, or more correctly, grand parentage, is a great companion of Iris japollica, the ice-white blooms complementing the pale blue of the japonica. This past winter, I flowered Iris formosa11a (courtesy of Dr. Boussard) for the first time and I thought it distinctively beautiful. The louisianas normally commence flowering here in mid-September, but this year there was little bloom Iris halopltila for louisianas until early October, so during the early part of the season, Iris pseudacoms, several early /. virginica seedlings, the beardeds Iris troja11a and Albicans and the evansias could be appreciated without much competition. The Virginicas bloomed in greater profusion than ever before this year. The middle of September saw the start of their bloom and a few late buds on a first year seedling were a snail's dainty breakfast but a week before Christmas; I had passed them by amidst the luxuriant foliage. Three months of uninterrupted bloom from only a dozen or so seedlings of one species is unquestionable evidence of the potential th is species holds as an outstanding garden iris of the future. It really was a year for the laevigatae! Iris laevigata, Iris laevigata alba, and several seedlings sent up masses of vigorous foliage in early September and this was followed by over a dozen spikes (none last year, 2 the year before) which carried a mass of bloom and now bear a crop of maturing pods. Following several years of barest survival, these plants were all introduced into what can only be described as a good vintage slimey mud in a submerged laundry tub. Dividing and replanting of this will be an olfactory ordeal; the mud is quite innocuous until disturbed! - 388 - Spuria species also were generous with bloom this year. Four separate clumps of Iris !Ialoplzila (3 from seed, one purchased) all flowered for the first time and all were superb. One lovely scape carried 4 open blooms of delicate ivory with ice-white veining. Few irises have im ressed me more. My 11 seedlings clumps of/. cartltaliniae are slowly expanding and 9 flowered for the second year running. Seedling variation, although slight, makes them all quite distinct and they are all very beautiful. Division is now imperative as, in my ignorance and pessimism, I have planted them all far too close together.