Tall Bearded Classic Iris SUMMIT

'Summit' photo taken yesterday. Part of my program each season is to replace the older earlier photos on my Blog to portray a more accurate photo for ID which is after all the purpose for the blog, its my record of the Irises growing at home. The photo is as the Waterson Catalogue description below and shows the rich yellow of the falls.  Waterson Iris Garden, Wanganui, Irises 1960-61. SUMMIT A lovely iris which, like Pinnacle, is a combination of white and yellow. The standards are the same pure white, without even...

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TALL BEARDED IRIS IRWELL SIMPLICITY

Yes I am keeping notes regarding plant habits and bud count and all the other important things but I do not have enough time to extrapolate the data to the blog at the moment. There are about twenty 'Ron Busch Irises blooming at the moment some in different gardens in different parts of the North Island so gathering the information and taking photos are the priorities at the moment. The dots will be joined and filled in later so if you need the bud count, or information of plant health you will have to return at a later date....

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Tall Bearded Iris IRWELL CASUAL FLIRT

I knew the early blooms would include some of Ron Busch incredible catalogue. So here is one of the early starts after a night of heavy rain. 2016 New Zealand Iris Hybridisers Cumulative Checklist  IRWELL CASUAL FLIRT (Ron Busch, R. 2010). Sdlg. 1852-4044. TB, 30" (76 cm), EM. S. lemon, violet midrib; style arms old gold, wine midrib; F. rose wine plicata on white; beards bronze. Parentage unknown. The Iris Garden, 2014. As always clicking on the above image will take you to the larger, higher resolution version....

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New Zealand Tall Bearded Iris EARLY BEAUT

Hardly any iris  bloom stalks anywhere at home just yet, and it feels like it's going to be one of those 'all at once' iris seasons once nature finally makes its mind up when spring will start so the irises get an temperature 'go' signal that is consistent over a few days or weeks not an hour or so like it is currently, and that the daylight hours change from just a astronomy calculation to reality.Even with all of these challenges it seems that our garden Tall Bearded Iris season starts...

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Tall Bearded Iris BURNT TOFFEE

The unusual is to breeders and some select growers a delight, toss in a unknown parentage or two and the intrigue goes to overdrive!! 'Burnt Toffee' is another of what I like to call my "Colour Chaos Irises" with it's original mysterious colour concoction. Smoky copper red-violet standards, brick red edged hafts with a airbrushed violet blue centre that expands down the falls and a decided margining of gold bronze, a blue beard tipped with bright old gold. Orange blossom fragrance....

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The past is never where you think you left it until you find it again

Mademoiselle Schwartz. Photo courtesy Michèle Bersillon [Ref 1] In summer of 1973 I received from Corinne Bromberger, Redlands, California, eight varieties originated by iris breeder Dr. Samuel Stillman Berry who, along with William Mohr and Grace Sturtevant, was one of the pioneering hybridizers in the United States. The previous year I had learned that Corinne lived immediately adjacent to the Berry property where--to my surprise--Dr. Berry still lived, spry and alert in his mid 80s. Immediately I contacted Corinne to...

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Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016, 100 years of British Iris Breeding,

British lovers of heritage irises will be excited to learn that Anne Milner and Sarah Cook will be at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show celebrating 100 years of British Irises. As for Hampton Court, they are doing a joint stand, highlighting, and selling irises from both of their collections.   Anne has the A.J. Bliss collection while Sarah has the collection of Cedric Morris irises. The theme of the display will be 100 years of British Iris Breeding, 1899 to 2000....

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French Historic Tall Bearded Iris Mademoiselle Schwartz

En 2012 Lawrence Ransom m’a fait parvenir un lot d’iris anciens qu’il avait reçus du Parc Floral de Paris lors de son inventaire de la collection Simonet. Un plan de plantation figurait au dos du bordereau de livraison de ces iris, noté d’une belle calligraphie, avec la précision et la rigueur qui sont celles de Lawrence. Un rhizome avait été envoyé à Phi Edinger quelques années auparavant (de Lawrence via Michèle Bersillon qui s’était gentiment chargée des modalités d’exportation). ...

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A Thoroughly Modern English Iris Collection.

Bryan Dodsworth My father, Bryan Dodsworth, died in June 2009, he was 89. During the last ten years of his life he had continued to manage the iris garden at the Old Rectory single-handed and his enthusiasm for hybridising was undimmed. This is borne out by the detailed records that he left in his battered 'Red Book', with entries right up to the end of 2008.  He received his last Dykes Medal in 2001 for 'Darley Dale' when he was over eighty, bringing his tally to twelve, a record that is unlikely to be bettered. Bryan's aim...

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Tall Bearded Iris TAJ RANI

'Taj Rani' is a very classy iris that has every chance of becoming another of Barry Blyths small but growing list of disappearing gems. Thirty eight years old and some will claim this contemporary iris as Historic because of the thirty year rule, and technically it is, but as I have already stated in one of my September 2012 post "When groups of  Irises emerge with characteristics sufficiently different from those that have gone before, the subject of a classification that is determined by a time line needs to be addressed." The...

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DWARF IRIS PROMOTION Walter Welch

DWARF IRIS PROMOTION Walter Welch It is my belief that when the breeders of any particular class of iris fails to put out new varieties, that class will gradually become stagnant and inactive. That has been the reason for the slump in dwarf interest in the past. Therefore it is necessary that our hybridizers continue with new production to keep this interest alive. In the past our hybridizers like Caparne, Burchfeild, and the Sass Brothers worked with the chamaeiris species almost entirely because this species was...

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Tall Bearded Iris PRETENDER

 Pretender is Paul Cook's so called blue variegata that came to fame before his 'Progenitor' breeding programme. Iris Culture and Hybridizing for Everyone. Wilma L Vallette, 1961. A few diploid variegata had blue-violet or red-violet falls, such as Nibelungen, but most tetraploid variegata and have a reddish or brownish ones. The two exceptions are Decennial (Williamson ‘30) and Pretender. The latter came from two seedlings which both go back three or more times to Blue Boy [Ref 1] a chance seedling of aphylla,...

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