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',,. ! • SIGNA . ~ . - ! : .:- ( . ... :., ;. !• 1 . , , --"""'.:z.,,.,-- i.J·.:·i: .. .- . ' : ; . .. _, , . I • : r: I •, . ·· ,, ·. .- . ·.. ~- : ' . '.! . _.j -~- ·' .. -I ,,I' · .. :-; • . ,.. ..r:::;, . ·: . .·: : ·.··.·. · ; . ,-:, :. ,o,~ TiiE SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP OF NORTI-1 AMERICA -:If~ TI-i:E SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP OF NORTH AMERICA October, 19'79 - No. 23 uFFICERS OF 'l'HE SOCIETY ~HAI R-!AN Jean Witt 16516 - 25th? NE., Seattle, Wash. 98155 SECRETARY Grace Carter 1212 Tucker Foad TREAS"ORER Hood River 9 Oregon 97031 SEED EXCHANGE Mary fuvall Foute 1, Box 142 DIRECTOR Dassel, Minn. 55325 SPECIES IDBIN Lorena F.eid 41866 McKenzie Highway DIRECTOR Springfield? Oregon 97477 SPECIES SLIDE Ibrothy Hujsak 3227 S. Fulton Ave . , CHAI IMAN Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135 EDITOR Bruce Richardson 492 Twenty Pd. E., R.R. 2, Hannon, Ontario, LOR IPO, Canada. EDITOR OF THE B. LeP.oy Iavidson 911 Western Ave., II 200, Seattle, Wash . 98104 S'IU DY MANI AL CONTENTS Page No . Report on Winter Damage Jean Witt 717 Some Fandom Thoughts on Seed Germination Bob Faabe 719 ' I Planting Iris Seed Ibwn Under Dr. G. B. Loveridge 721 Chinese Species listed Jean Witt 723 Cultivation of I. kampferi and Zaevigata Ix. Shuichi Hirao 724 Notes on Iris kaempferi Alan Fisk 727 Changes to the Constution of SIGNA SIGNA Executive 728 Slide Sets Ibrothy Hujsak 728 Iris !bots .; Ikawings British Iris ·Society 729 Iris henryi - Drawing & conm1entary Jean Witt 733 Drawing of Iris Petals, Styles & Stamens Nigel Service 734 7ertile Cal-Sibes Nigel Service 735 Key to the Common Garden Irises 737 Drawings - ~'fbree I~ia $pep~esmatica New York Botanical Garden 739 Commentary on ,t:he-:,.Eneatae Ernest G. B• . Luscombe 740 Letters 741 Rare Iris Protected - I . prismatica Maine News 742 Older Bulletins Needed · lby Iavidson 742 The Emperor Hirohito's Iris lby Davidson 743 The Iris as a Garden Plant lby Davidson 743 Report on Species from the AIS Convention Joan Cooper 744 Report on Species from the AIS Convention lby Iavidson 744 Questions Please lby Davidson 746 Plants in Peril Dr. Maurice Boussard 748 Iris Insect Control C.F. Koval 752 Some Indian Irises Colonel D.G. Lowndes 754 Water Loving and Aquatic Iris C. P. :Raff ill 757 Publications Available 763 Crested Irises in New Zealand Jean Stevens 764 .. ~·· Editorial Comments Bruce Richardson 766 717 REPORT ON WINTER DAMAGE :!e.a.n wu.:t 'l,.ne ccld winter that· we "felt in our bones" was coming arrived uith a vengeance .:1 couple of days after Christmas 1978. We bad about a week of below freezing weather \,,ith only a skim of snc-;v, includ:i.ng one night that dropped to ll°F ~nd several days "' n wh:f.cb the temp~.:-ature did not ri~e above freezing while the sun shone brilliantly ·.m : :rozen lt'!aves. The g:.:-ound was frozen dcwn as much as a foot and remained so for 1r.ore than a ,reek after the temperatures moderated. Such "bitter cold" will make our midwestern m-::mbers laugh, but this is the first time in 25 years that we have had extended cold without snowcover; and it is definitely the exception for Seattle . Though gardens in general experienced damage and the Arboretum lost a numb er of marginal shrubs, irises fared better than e>;:pected. None of rey bearded irises were killed, whether 2n, 4n, MTB or SDB; and this included some moved in October. Iris mellita 'Aya Zaga' dwindled and expired in mid-spring, but this seems to have been fungus and not freeze directly. The Crested Irises, formerly protected by the cold frame, took the worst beat ing. I. japonica which has waxy evergreen leaves, was undamaged. 'Nada" was killed back to the ground; some smaller shoots escaped on 'Darjeeling'--their foliage is not waxy. Iris wattii which has la:.:-ge, soft, lush foliage was killed completely except for a couple of tiny shoots that have come up from the base of the stems. 'Ii:~ potted plant of I. wattii whicn was in the house beside the glass door had !'.>ne leaf frozen where it stuck out to the glass through a crack in the drapes. Iris fomosana (which I forgot to put a box over) was killed outright even though protect ed by a large rhodendron. Ii. aristata and tenuis, both deciduous, came through ·..r..iscathed. Several pieces of tetraploid I. tectorui~ from Sam Norris, which he says caunot stand his· 15° below winters in Kentucky, survived in a plunged pot.. under a ltght mulch of pine needles, as did the large blue I. tectoI"W!7 ,from Taiwan. The named clones of Pacific Coast Natives from California breed1; rs and all the· s~~mbach seedlings came through in gocd shape, to my great delight--! had been wondering whether we would find them tender. '?!endocino Morn r and 'Amigui td suffered some foliage burn, but recovered and bloomed as usual. I. maarosiphon, in a dry !ocation under the pine tree, was not damaged; nor was I. purdyi 'Memori~ Elwood'. The only items I l ost were so-:ne new varieties acquired the end of October, and one big clump of pink te1~7 x that I lost because I broke the rule about moving only part ~fa clump in any one year--it seemed to have died of drought, perhaps the soil was not packed in tight enough ar0und the roots. I. unguiau.Za.X'is on the south side of the house· (where it was hit by the sun while frozen) suffered varying degrees of damage. 9Lazica' (the most northerly in origin) was killed on the side where I had r emoved divisions from the clump in late August. 'Walter Butt'~ :he pale orchid form from Algiers was in bloom.w:tien the freeze hit--the whole plant was killed except for a single fan of leaves that was leaning against the hou:3e foundation. The large clump on the south side of the Arboretum · greenhouse was al.so killed except for a half dozen shoots. All the flower buds were killed on ' Speciosa'; its leaves were not damaged. Marjo_rie Barnes' November blooming clone and Edith Cleaves' white "Winter's Treasure'·suffered minor damage. Divisions set out the previous August from all varieties were killed compl etely. I. u.nguicuZar-i~ is slow enough to recover after dividing--obviousi.y in our cli~.-te it should never be divided in advance of a hard winter! _ ~o~tunately, some of the divisions of 'Walter Butt' went to California, and are now established there. 718 Among the bulbous types, the Juno species alata. froze out dispite th_e pine needle mulch; but it is known to be tender. I . bucharica suffered no damage and bloomed as usual; I . magnifica seedlings also survived. None of the Reticulata.s suffered winter damage, nor did the English irises. A few of the Dutch succl.lll'~ed co rot, but this was not necessarily the result of the freeze. Cypella herbertii seed lings were among the suLvivors--I had been told this was hardy. Full size Tigridia and Gladiolus bulbs which I had forgotten to dig were killed, of course, but tiny bulbless have sent ~p shoots--they apparently are more cold resistant than the mature bulbs. A NOTE ON I RISES IN KOREA An acquaintance whose busin.:::ss takes him to Korea had reported seeing a small yellow-flowered iris blooming on a hillside near Seoul, at about 1500 feet elevation. This year he was able to take slides not only of that iris, which appears to be Iris minutoaurea, but also of a tiny blue-flowered one as well. This too, has narrow leaves with prominent veins, and pingpong paddle or spoon-shaped standards, which match the illustration of I . rossii in FLOWERS M1D FOLKLORE FROM KOREA by Florence Huddeston (1931, reprinted 1969, Seoul, Korea) . I quizzed him carefully about the conditions under which the plants were growing, in hopes of finding some clue as to why my I. minutoaurea doesn't bloom. The area around Seoul. has about the same amount of rainfall as Seattle, around 38 inches a year, but differently distributed. July and August are hot and humid, while winters are dry and cool. Spring is about like ours~ which means rather cool with occasional rain. •'"', . ' The blue-flowered plant was growing at 1000 feet elevation, in conditions j similar to the yellow one--on a high hill, burned over, open9 but with lush growth that included Rhododeruiron muoronulatwn. The soil was well drained and rather sandy. This hill was presumably a "wUd" location, unless there had been a temple up there at some time in the past--in such an ancient countr y one can never be sure. *** Here's a little problem Iill toss out to our members, in case some of you would like to do a bit of sleuthing. The great temple of Thutmose III at Karnak, Egypt, ca 1450 B.C., is noted for its friezes of plants 7 in a fairly lifelike style. They are said to record a par~ of the spoils which the victorious Thutmose III brought back from his campaign in Syria. An inscription states that they show "all the plants that grow, a~l the goodly flowers that are in the Divine Land (i.e. the country northeast of Egypt) • • •• His Majesty saith, 'As I live, all these plants exist in very truth; there is not a line of falsehood among them. My Majestry has wroughf this in order to cause them to Le before my father Ammon, in this great hall for ever and ever.'" My question, are there any irises among these plants? Perhaps someone with access to a big city library can track down a bo0k with pictures of this frieze of plants and let us know ••.•.

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