.,.. :.:_':' :-~ .' :.. .: - .-.- ~ .:-t;-:"." _1 • ' 1 , ; I :~ • i , ' ,_, -~ • ' •• , J "' ,t ' : _ - r • ~ • (~y ·. •• ; :· ·! ' . ~ .. .,, ,. · 1 z I •'• ! , " j •' I _. \ ·:: ;_i · · . : ·. · ·, I _• 1· · t . ! ' .., .. :•, , ·-: 1 •.: , ••• • ,: :·: I • • ~ ·r:0· · t J ,i ,,~ ..__. , : . , : : :J: I \·. :,•.•• IBE SPEC IES( IRIS STUDY GROUP OF NORIB AMERICA THE SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP OF. NORTH AMERICA April, 1980 - No. 24 OFFICIERS OF THE SOCIETY CHAIRMAN Jean Witt 16516 - 25th, NE., Seattle, Wash. 98155 SECRETARY Grace Carter 1212 Tucker Road TREASURER Hood River, Oregon 97031 SEED EXCHANGE Mary Duvall Route 1, Box 142 DIRECTOR Dassel , Minnesota 55325 SPECIES R6BIN Joan Cooper 212 \'I. County Road C DIRECTOR St. Paul, Minnesota 55113 SPECIES SLIDE Dorothy Hujsak 3227 S. Fulton Ave . CHAIRMAN Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135 BACK ISSUES AND Maryann Anning La Cresta Gardens, 12864 Viscaino Road PUBLICATIO~ SALES Los Altos Hills, California 94022 EDITOR OF SIGNA Bruce Richardson 7249 Twenty Road, R.R. 2, Hannon, Ontario, . LOR IPO, Canada. EDI TOR OF THE LeRoy Davidson 911 Western Ave., #200, Seattle, Wash. 98104 STUDY MANUAL B. CONTENTS Page No. Chairman's Message Jean Witt 767 Editorial Comments Bruce Richardson 768 Species Iris Seed Germination Ruby Buchanan 769 (Sub Titles): AIS Bulletin Articles 771 Letters 772 Book Reviews 772 Dr. Egli 776 Samuel F. Sipe 777 Dr. Boussard 779 Samuel N. Norris 780 Frank Chowing 782 Jean Witt 783 Bee Warburton 784 Factors Influencing Germination Dr. F. Rando lph 785 Drawing - Pat Farmer's Cal-Sibe J ean Witt 797 Drawing - The Cal.Sibe GARDEN WAVES Jean Witt 798 Drawing - I. Lactea. Jean Witt 798 Cal-Sibe Update Jean Witt 799 Robin Report Joan Cooper 800 NADA - Houseplant Joan Cooper 801 More From A Robin Elaine Hulbert 802 Iris Of The Wastelands Dr. J . Seque 803 The Culture Of Louisiana Irises Joseph IC. Mertxweiller 804 PC Ns Leo Michl 806 Numerical Studies of I . pumila Roy Davidson 807 Key To The Sections Of The Genus Iris B. I.S. SPECIES GROUP 808 Questions: Roy Davidson 810 Experimenting With Iris unguicular'is Charles Bedrock 811 Descriptions: I . dykesii & I . phragmitetorum Roy Davidson 812 Letters Our Members 813 767. CHAIRMAN'S 1vi£SSAGE Jean Wili 1979 has been a year of continued progress for SIGNA and 1980 has already show~ more of the same with an influx of new members. The SEED EXCHANGE under the directr­ .ion of Mary Duvall, with the able assistance of the IRIS SOCIETY OF MINNESOTA, has done ·exceptionally well. Requests were many and even more seed could be used. Our status as an AIS SECTION entitles those of our members who are also AIS members to pay their SIGNA dues through AIS if they wish, and would greatly reduce the workload of our SECRETARY-TREASURER, who lacks t he computer our past secretary-treasurer, Homer Metcalf made use of at his university. Our special thanks to Homer for his many years of faithful service on SIGNAtS BEHALF. Your executive is still working on some minor revisions to our by-laws to satisfy the IRS re a tax free status and to empha5izo both our non-profit and public service aspect~ One public service feature has already been put into effect in that species iris rhizomes have already been supplied to some public gardens, such as the Devonian Botanic Garden at the Univc;rsity of Alberta, Edmonton, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, Georgia, which is just starting its collection and as well a group of Cal­ Sibe and other beardless interseries hybrids have gone to the Missouri Botanic Garden at St. Louis, Missouri. At least two other gardens have expressed interest in starting beds and/or adding to existing collections. The collection at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, Ontario, has been added to on several occasions over the past several years. So far, your executive conunittee has supplied most of the plants, but we hope to tap the membership for contributions, particularly the rarer species that are hard to come by or unusual variations (such as the many varied: I, pumiZa colours for example) as th~ program expands so that it will be truly a society venture. · The AIS Secretary, Carol Ramsey, sends inquiries about species our way, and I have fielded a number of questions this past summer about sources, etc. If you are now selling species, be sure that Bruce Richardson, our Editor, receives a copy of your catalogue or listing, so that he can keep our published list of sources up to date. Providing this information is one of SIGNA's important services. Work on the teaching slide collection for use in judges' training is nearly complete--this will be similar to the set that Roy Davidson showed at the species sessions in Huntsville. At the request of the AIS Slide·Chairman Dr. D. C. Nearpass we're currently in the process of assembling a second AIS species slide set from AIS. extras and SIGNA duplicates. This will feature a large number of Junos, donated r ecently by Frank Kalich of Albuquerque, New Mexico. With our own SIGNA slide set, available through our slide chairman, Dot Hujsak, this will make four touring species slide shows. I am also pleased t o report that the slide copying process seems to have improved greatly since the last time I had such work done, and current copies ~re virtually indistinguishable from originals in brilliance. So keep the slide ~ollections in mind while photographying this spring. We can always use additional pictures. We have also begun to collect material for imput into the next revision of the Judges' Handbook. It would be most helpful if SIGNA members who are also judges, would write to me about species judging problems that have cropped up at their shows . We've already pinpointed a couple of items, but we need imput from various sections of the country, as I'm sure the problems vary from area to area. So much for executive activities. What was new in species irises in 1979? More is probably going on within our ranks than I get wind of, but I can tell you that at· l east two Cal-Sibe projects are underway. Several members have started ' t long-ra,nge pro~~s, to dev.elop Pacific Coast Native irises for parts of the U.S. where they.were: formerly ·considered impossible. Dr. Paim's search for additional colour fo;1.1I1s of I. setosa in Newfoundland has failed to turn up anything new, but I understand that they now have a pinkish form in Japan. I . setosa f . nasuensis · bloomed for me for the first time, a beautiful blue, certainly a fine addition to the varieties in cultivation. If you haven 1 t seem X ?a:rdaneanda nor1•isii itself, watch for its colour picture in the ads and/or catalogues of Park Nursery Co., Greensville, South Carolina. PACIFIC HORTICULTURE, winter issue 1979-80, p. 55, has a note by Jean Collins of New Zealand on the irid Dietes robinsoniana., the wedding iris of Lord Howe Isl and . Ferra:ria unduZata~ another irid, is shown in colour in the same issue on p. 28 in an article SOUTI-iAFRICAN BULBS AT HOME by Robert Ornduff. Remember our editor when you see items of this sort in your r eading--collecting references on Iris and irids calls for full membership participation if we are going to catch everything we should! We have a host of new members- -they need to know, through SIGNA, how to grow species in a wide variety of climates, so please share your experiences. The winter has been kinder to irises in Seattle this year than last, even if thunderclouds did dump some snow on the reticulatas and stylosas yesterday. (ED: Jean's lette1• was dated Ma:reh 18/80) Bost wishes to all our far flung membership, for the best iris season over in 1980. *** PDBLICA'I'IONS AVAILABLE SIGNA Issues 1 to 23 $1 .50 each THE IRIS STUDY MANUAL $5.00 fo r the compl ete set A GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC COAST IRISES $ 1. 50 ( only 2 copi es left). ALPHABETICAL TABLE & SPECIES GUIDE $1 . 50 (only 12 copies left) Send requests for any of the above to: Maryann M. Anning, La Cresta Gardens, 12864 Viscaino Road, Los Altos Hills, California 94022, U.S.A. ED ITORIAL COMMENTS Btu.tee 1Uc.ha.!td60 n A request came in too late for SIGNA 23 from Burdella M. Rhodes to mention the upcoming AIS Convention in Tulsa, Okla. April 29th to May Jrd. I am afraid SIGNA 24 will reach you too late to give details here, but do hope it is successful and all in attendance have an enjoyable time. This issue of SIGNA has been largely devoted to germination information, but I stress this is not the last word on the subject by any means. Read the many and varied solutions suggested for the successful germination of species seeds and pick one that is reasonable for the facilities you have available. The most elaborate rray not always be the best and certainly embryo culture is suitable for only a very few of us. I hope these suggested methods will result in many of you writing in of your experiences or methods--whether successful or not. Knowledge of a bad method can save someone else a lot of frustration. Please let me hear from you; lots of room to pr int ideas! The winter here in the east and in this part of Ontario, as well as the north, has been an odd one. The heaviest snowfall was 5" and for. the first tµne in 40 years never had to snowplow.