D ~ SIG NA 0 : ~ . ,, j ' THE SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP OF THE AMERICAN IR IS SOCIETY J/20 THE SPECIES IRIS GROUP OF NORTH Aiv:iERICA October, 1982, No. 29 OFFICI:.RS OF THE SOCIETY CHAIRMAN Jean Witt 16516 - 25th, NE., Seattle, Wash. 98155 SECRETARY Grace Carter 1212 Tucker Rd ., Hood River, Oregon 97031 Treasurer Francesca Thoolen 255 Manzanita Drl., Orinda, Calif. 94563 (As of Jan. 1, 1983) Gene Opton 12 Stratford Rd., Berkeley, Calif. 94707 SEED EXCHANGE l1ary Duvall Route 1, Box 142, Dassel, Minn. 55125 SPECIES ROBIN 212 County Road C, Joan Cooper DIRECTOR St. Paul, Minn. 55113 SPECIES SLIDES 3227 South Fulton Ave. , Dorothy Hujsak DIRECTOR Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135 BACK ISSUES AND Evelyn Hayes 611 S. Lemoore Ave ., Lemoore, Calif. 93245 PUBLICATION SALES EDITOR OF SIGNA Bruce Richardson 7249 Twenty Rd. E. R.R.2, Hannon, Ontario, Canada LORIPO CONTENTS Page No. Chairman' s Nessage Jean Witt 979. Growing Iris (Review) (Roy Davidson) 980 Garden Plants in Japan Fumio Kitamura & Yurio Ishizu 981 I . tridentata John W. Wood 982 Sytema tics of Gynancb:>iris (Iridaceae) Peter Goldblatt 983 New species of Iridaceae Pierfelice Ravenna 985 Drawing - pod of I. unguiaularis Jean Witt 986 THE IRIS - Brian Mathew (A review) Roy Davidson 987 Questions Please · Roy Davidson 989 The Clouded Iris bulleyana Roy Davidson 990 Iris hexago.na - Divergent Views Frank E. Chowning 992 Iris Production in the U.S .A. U.S . D.A. 995 Iris pseudacorus Fl owers in Alaska Angus Robertson 996 Some Uncommon Yellow Water-Flags Roy Davidson 996 Cultural Notes (From a robin) Jean Witt 998 Slides (Want some?) Dorothy Hujsak 1000 Letters David L. Heikamp 1001 Ruby Buchanan 1002 The Three Graces Mary Benlo~ 1003 From"Flowers and Folklore from Far Korea 1004 Iris teatorwn Taiwan Form Robert H. Egli 1005 Some Colour Forms - Iris unguicularis John Redfern 1006 Blue Flag Bennie Bengston 1008 Irises For The Alpine Garden G.P . Baker 1010 Editorial Comments Bruce Richardson 1019 Membership List Grace Carter 1020 .E(ecent new members (not on the membership listing) Dr . Robert L. Bledsoe, 2024 S. First St. , Sious Falls, SD 57105 Nrs. Francis F. Garvan, Jr., 308 Bellaire Dr., Hot Sp rings~ Ark. 71901 Caroily Haukadottir, 2501 Hemlock Dr., Visalia, CA 93277 Anthony W. Lange, Rt. 2, Box 8, Norton, TX 76865 Northern Ill~aois Iris Society? c/o Florence Stout, Lib. 150 N. Main, Lombard, Ill. 60148 979 CHAiru1AN 's MESSAGE Jean Witt Signa's membership continues to grow, and after attending the Section President's meeting at the AIS convention, I am pleased to report that we seem to have a few less problems tham some of the other sections, due largely to the con­ tinued succes of our seed exchange. My husband Joe, and Roy Davidson and I drove from Seattle to Denver, and saw acres of Iris missouriensis in bloom in the valley of the Powder River near LaGrande, Oregon, and others later as we approached Denver. Several kinds of speciEs irises were making a fine show in the rock garden at the Denver Botanic Garden -- Ii. setosa and tenax f. gormanii were especially notable. Because of a crowded Sections schedule, our Signs meeting was small. We show­ ed about 35 of the most recent slides from the Signa collection, and the audience participation was tremendous! Nearly every slide brought forth a bit of information from someone - how- to- grow, additional colour forms, hybrids etc~ Our board members managed to squeeze in a dinner meeting; while we didn't so~ve all our pro­ blems, we made a beginning, and face-to-face discussions save a lot of letter writ­ ing! Time, as usual, was all too short for visiting, but we greatly enjoyed meet­ ing members with whom we had corresponded over the years. We are pleased to welcome our new publications director who is Evelyn Hayes of Lemoore, California. All orders for back issues of Signa should now be sent to her. My thanks on behalf of our board and our membership to our retiring director of publications, Maryann Anning. See roster for address. And now to some of our problems: First, we are in need of a new Round Robin director, as Joan Cooper would like to be relieved of this duty soon. This is an interesting job, as it brings one in contact with many of our members via our ~obins. If you can help with this program, please contact Joan or me. Signa will be changing editors in the near future and faces a crises in the printing of our publication. If we go to commercial printing, our costs will sky­ rocket, necessitating a dues raise. We therefore appeal to our membership: HELF! ~ELP! Does anyone among you have access to a copying machine, and the time to print, assemble, and mail out our publication twice a year? Signa would pay for paper and supplies as we do now -- what we need to find is free or near-free use of a suitable copier Alternatively, do we have any member(s) experienced in cutting mineograph stencils in the old fashioned way, and/or access to a mimeograph machine? This is our current method of printing text (illustrations are done in a print shop) and we could continue by this method if we can find the necessary volunteers. Signa has been extremely fortunate over the years in having members who stepped forward to answer our appeals for help with the job of running our society. We are blessed with large numbers of willing and capable people--but in a "mail order" operation such as ours, our major means of locating you is by these direct pitches asking for your help. PLEASE LET ME HEAR FROM YOU! Our special thanks to those who have sent slides for our collection. At this rate we will soon have a second complete set available for loan. Your board has also voted to .have a traveling species display, to exhibit at future conventions. We can use some volunteers on this project, too. Keep the supply of seeds coming in to our seed exchange-this is what keeps us going. And remember to send your comments and garden experiences to our editor-we have lots of new members and they are anxious to know what we are growing and bow we man~ge to do it under our widely varying conditions of climate and soil. Be.st wishes to all for a favourable winter! 980 GROWING IRIS (Re view} G. E. CMhidlj and S. U111tegaJL Commentary by Bruce Riolia:r>dson This book, p~Eact in 1982, arrived here in late July: for review before going on ·to be acposi~e~ in the Canadian Iris Society's library at the Royal Bot­ anical Gardens, Hamilt?n? Ontario. The title is somewhat misleading, as the work covers. far m~re t~an m~rely growing irises, although that theme is paramont through­ out the book. _I expected it to deal largely with the ~ultivars and was plesently surpriseq to fin4 it leaned heavily to the species, with t he cultivars only casually mentioned as part of the garden picture, and not the whole scene as most of the gardens in North America seem to be. The book is not a large one, being some 160 pages, but manages to cover its subject very cempletely, although naturally briefly i n some instances, but s till most ~on~t~z:r fP~ ~P, ~nf:~t~?~in~ manner of writing. The firs t appendix gives lists of the favourite irises of ~hese ·two gentlemen of which fully 1/3 of those named are species. Growing such a diversity of species is proof positive that the authors are experts in their field. One smal~ example of this is that this is the only book I have ever seen that told hot:7 to remove spent bloom stalks properly -- by bending to one side and snapping them off ... Wf!.1. Miles told us and from there it was pas~ed on through the Canadian Iris Society. Most books say cut them off which i s all wrong. and nQt nature.' s way. The book opens like mos t iris books with the story of the iris but soon gets into classific;.ation and line drawings of the different t_ypes of root stalks, and the geo_graphical distribution of the species. There ~re several very interesting pages describing early history of the iris from ancient times to the near present and the early discoverers like Linnaeus, to Foster, Baker, Lynch, and Dykes to name only a few. A chapter is given over to garden design and an ideal layout is drawn for a yard of about 50'x60', with space for every type. Because close attention is given to the species and their special needs, methods are described on the preparation of suitable beds, from wet to clay, clay to sand, and acid to alkaline and what goes in each. Although the work is scientifically accurate, it is not written in such a manner that one needs a degree in chemistry to understand it. A beginning amateur will feel just as comfortable reading it as an advanced expert. Detailed varieties are suggested for border beds, with colour harmony in mind, not small ideas either with from 33-51 clumps in the various plans. Another chapte~ deals with iris in a mixed border and again the drawings and nam_ed va:i:-_iet:j.es sho.w you how to put together a harmonious whole . The next chapter goes into the wild or woodland garden, again with many sug­ gestions as to wh~re the species would do well.