Tall Bearded Iris "HARMONICS "

Harmonics is a mid to late season flowering plicata and presents the ultimate contrast, not just the blue and white distinctive plicata pattern, but as an excellent example of the advances made in modern plicata breeding. Really good bud count on strong well branched stems, with a slight sweet scent. Pollen parent to Barry Blyth's 2000 introduction 'Painted from Memory'. The Blyth family has a long history of hybridising good quality plicata's in the blue and white colour range that quickly become classics's. 'Sapharine' another Blyth classic that I grow and possibly one of the great underrated blue and white plicatas of the last century. Australia has a great depth of plicata breeding which got of to a great start in the 1930's with Mr Aylett and his 'City of ' plicata series. His iris with its lost registration 'City of Armadale' was widely distributed in Australia and also used in plicata breeding.

Tempo Two Iris Daylilies Hostas Catalogue 1995-1996
'Harmonics' ( Blyth,94 Aust.) M-ML 38" A complete delight to us each year it flowers. Standards are white heavily overlaid and stitched light blue so that hardly any white shows through. The Falls bright white with 1/2" stippled edge of deeper blue and hafts are slightly deeper again. Beards are lemon white. Form is what makes it. Touching hafts on full wide ruffled flowers. Super branching make it an excellent show iris as well as a great clump of colour in the garden. This has a full sister for release in 1996( Some Are Angels ) that is pure white recessive that is also spectacular.

AIS Checklist 1999
HARMONICS ( Barry Blyth, R. 1994). Sdlg. Z62-1. TB, 38" (97 cm), ML. S. white, heavily overlaid and stitched light blue; F. white, 1/2" stitched and stippled deep blue edge, deeper hafts with violet tone, flared and ruffled; beards whitish, lemon in throat. W56-1: ('Lipstick Lies' x 'Light Beam') X 'Snowbrook'. Tempo Two 1994/95.

I see that my two clumps of the historic plicata 'Los Angeles' have shown good growth and could flower for the first time this season so it will be great to post the photos to show the progression of size and form of the last 82 years in blue and white plicata hybridisation.

As always clicking on the above image will take you to the larger, higher resolution version.
Photo Credit & Copyright Irishunter

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New Zealand Tall Bearded Iris "ARGOSY "

Another delightful Iris from the Late Jean Stevens. This photo was taken at the garden's of, Mary Greaves the Treasurer of the Masterton Horticultural Society, who has a very fine collection of Historic Irises. Argosy, is the pod parent of the very early 'Phantom Gold', and it's later flowering sib 'Random Harvest'.

Stevens Bros. Irises Catalogue 1944-45
An exceptional brilliance of colouring entitles this novelty to rank amongst the brightest Iris we grow The Standards are a pure glistening rich gold. In the falls the same gold is flushed with rich brown, a bright gold beard gives the finishing touch to a luminous colourful flower. Good form and substance. Golden Hind X Beowulf.

2011 New Zealand Hybridisers Cumulative Checklist
ARGOSY Mrs J. Stevens, Reg., 1944. Sdlg. 1/P59. TB, 36″, M, Y9D. S. brilliant gold; F. gold heavily overlaid dark brown; Description J. Stevens Studbook notes,‘1941 flowering’; An exceptional brilliance of colouring entitles this novelty to rank amongst the brightest iris we grow. The Standards are a pure glistening rich gold. In the falls the same gold is flushed with rich brown, a bright gold beard gives the finishing touch to a luminous colourful flower. Good form and substance. Description Stevens Bros. Catalogue 1945-46. Golden Hind X Beowulf. 'Novelties' Stevens Bros 1945-46

AIS Checklist 1949
ARGOSY (Mrs J. Stevens, R. 1944). Sdlg. 1/P59. 36" TB, M, Y9D.

Photo Credit and Copyright Irishunter

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IRIS Reticulata X IRIS Histrioides

A nice blue with just a splash of yellow Iris 'Harmony' is a very popular hybrid of Iris histrioides and Iris reticulata
 It took until this afternoon to get the shot in the sun. This tiny Iris tolerates either sun or shade. Blooms late winter early spring.Only 12 cm in height with a great primrose scent. The narrow almost square spear like foliage is very unique in the iris world.
Bulbs are readily available late summer from regular plant stores and Big Box hardware Chains. Planted in the Autumn, 10cm deep in small clumps.  They are perfect for growing in pots and demand very little attention.Keep the pots outside in a sheltered spot until the growth pokes through, when they can be brought inside to flower. After flowering, I give them a feed of blood and bone or a low nitrogen fertiliser and return outside to a partialty shaded spot.
For a tiny plant they certainly pack visual knock-out punch. Give them ago.

Photo Credit and Copyright Irishunter

*****

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Tall Bearded Iris "LADY FRIEND"

A Colour sometimes described as Toasted Watermelon, Lady Friend is an Early flowering Iris carrying an abundance of bloom is a robust grower and increase is outstanding.Lady Friend is the result of Joe Ghio's long-standing and continued pursuit of the elusive Red Iris.  The evolution of the RED iris is far from complete. Becomes another reluctant iris labelled as Historic in 2010.

Keith Keppel 1982 Catalog, Irises.
LADY FRIEND (Ghio 1981) Indian Territory X Countryman Vigorous garnet rose self with tangerine red beards...$16.00

Bay View Gardens 1982 Catalog
LADY FRIEND (Ghio 1981) Glittering garnet ; a new colour debuts to the Iris galaxy. Tall, well branched, very vigorous, and quite early ..$20.00

Cooleys 2000 Iris Fanciers Standard Reference Book.
LADY FRIEND (Ghio 1981) E. 38"
A unique garnet rose flower. It is a prolific bloomer and is fast to increase. This plant will soon produce a rosy bid or garden. HM 1983, AM 1985

IRISES A Gardeners Encyclopaedia, Claire Austin.
Iris 'Lady Friend' (J. Ghio 1980) The ruffled flowers are hard to describe. The colour is a sort of pink red or perhaps is the breeder describes it garnet red. The beard is are bent orange. Height 97 cm 38¾ inches Bloom; very early to early-season.

IRIS,Flower of the Rainbow, Graeme Grosvenor.
Lady Friend (Ghio 1981) approaches red from the dark pink side, being a garnet rose or garnet red in colour and quite distinctive with its soft coloured beards. The flowers are large and of reasonable form. They are carried on excellent, strong spikes with about seven well spaced flowers that bloom early and continue through the season. Spikes will reach 95 cm in height and are able to hold up well in all weather. 'Lady Friend' is a superb garden Iris in every way, It is healthy, vigorous and quick to increase, seems unperturbed by soil or climate conditions and is an outstanding performer in mild climates. It also re-establishes very quickly and will perform very well on a first year planting. It is an Iris that seems never to fail even when treated quite harshly. 'Lady Friend' is from interesting breeding, Indian Territory X Countryman and although I know of others who have been able to achieve nice seedlings from it, I have been unable to obtain much of quality. When it first released it was thought that 'Lady Friend' would open the door to a range of reds from the pink side, but this has not happened. 'Lady Friend' is an excellent show Iris and has been champion at the NSW Region of the ISA show in Sydney.

AIS Checklist 1989
LADY FRIEND.(Joseph Ghio, R. 1980) Sdlg. 76-126-O. TB, 38" (97 cm), VE-E ; Garnet red; red beard. Indian Territory X Countryman. Bay View Gardens 1981. HM 1983, AM 1985.

As always clicking on the above image will take you to the larger, higher resolution version.
Photo Credit and Copyright Iris Hunter.

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American Iris Society Bulletin

Last time I posted on my Blog it was July and now its August, how about that. Just where does this year think its going.
The American Iris Society July bulletin arrived in the post a day or so ago, its another 130 pages of Interesting Iris information. So far this year that's 390 pages published and there is still another Bulletin to come in October.

Stand out Articles within the latest Bulletin
Part Two of the Iris critique 'Contemporary Views by Perry Dyer 2007-2008' which is always a excellent read
Pat Toolan writes an interesting article on Aril and Historic Iris growing in Australia.
Perhaps the 'Out of Left Field" article goes to 'Educate your members to keep them' not sure if this is a new idea but its an idea that has had real success so congratulations.

The Editors somewhat puzzling message is with reference to Newspapers and 'Bulletins via the internet'. I will bet that the demand for the Bulletin in the printed form will remain strong even among the so called net-savvy membership for many years to come. The Bulletin is a Reference Magazine format not a Newspaper and following the trend of what happens to newspapers whilst is interesting, it is irrelevant. Most members would agree that reading a bulletin or year book is an informative experience and there is something much more convenient and relaxing about having something in print and not just holding a computer or an E Book reader while sitting in your favourite chair.
I was reading an article the other day, (in a real Newspaper) about how the Laptop market had matured and that the laptop manufacturer was looking at the electronic book market for growth but that was still 5 years away. Lets face facts E book readers (Kindle) at US $299.00 ($446.00 NZ Dollars) for a tiny six inch screen, the price would have to move a long way down to get mass market appeal, and personally I not sure I would want to spend the big bucks having to upgrade my reading glasses which would be the inevitable result squinting at such a tiny screen, and paying US $489.00 (A Massive $729.00 NZ Dollars) for Amazons new Kindle DX larger nine inch screen with text in standard E-Ink black on grey is verging on the ridiculous. Some colour screen laptops can be purchased for that kind of money and do a lot more!~!Lets also not forget the sophisticated commercial growers of Irises and their existing websites and all their pages of catalogued Irises and the associated photos. These growers will soon realise that for less than the price of their current print media advertising budget they will be able to divert the spend on good quality weekly editorial content on their web sites coupled with e-newsletters to their e-mailing lists. Visitors will just log in read the latest news on the site, chat on a forum, purchase books, plants, Music or whatever and they will have created the one stop Iris shop with no membership fee obligations or a walled garden. Should these upgraded sites ever become a reality they will be a real threat to any Iris Society not so much to the existing membership but would certainly choke the flow of new and younger sophisticated members to Iris societies.
My thoughts are that Iris Societies that really have the chance to succeed and play the endgame what ever that happens to be, will be today offering a strong and informative 'single desk format' web presence, but also will be offering the membership a print subscription with unique quality content that isn't on the web.

Here's a few informative sites that are much more expansive and are well worth a read on the E books and the demise of the Newspaper as we know it.

• Gadget Lab Hardware News and Reviews
• Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives 
• Why the Kindle HD Can’t Save Newspapers
• CLAY SHIRKY Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable 
• TIME MAGAZINE The race for a better read

*****

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New Zealand Iris History

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The above and below scans are from H C Gibbons & Co.1904 Seed, Trees, and Plant catalogue kindly loaned to me by Gareth Winter. The catalogue is 184 pages of early New Zealand gardening plant and equipment history also includes a truly amazing list of sprays that if used today commercially on fruit and vegetables recommended, the grower concerned would be in breach of Health and Safety laws. Can you imagine a food label stating fruit sprayed with Asenate of Lead.

The popularity of Japanese Irises in early New Zealand gardening history is really surprising, and were sold as plants and seeds by several distributors of the time. Japanese irises where only introduced into England after 1774,but it was not until about 1859 that the cultivar's became very fashionable internationally in gardens, unfortunately this trend became like a short lived Mexican wave .
It should be noted in the bulb catalogue (H C Gibbons & Co.), 30 named Japanese varieties and 40 named German Iris in 1904 is a substantial and impressive listing for that era. To emphasis the point some twenty years later, the A.H. Burgess 1924-26 Catalogue lists 61 Bearded Iris (German Iris)

Big hat tip to Gareth Winter for the use of the catalogues

*****

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Tall Bearded Iris "SCENE STEALER"

SCENE STEALER by Hooker Nichols is an aptly named and very attractive amoena white standards infused with pale violet at their base, reddish purple falls with a large white zone under the bright orange beards. Almost horizontal falls with a very thin and laced white border. Scene Stealer is a sib to Boogie Woogie, a very elegant Amoena Plicata

Hooker Nichols writes about 'Scene Stealer' in a recently received email, "The parentage is (Taj Rani x In Tempo) X Song of Spring. It combines the hybridizing lines of Barry Blyth and Melba Hamblen. It is one of the last iris to bloom in the garden and makes a wonderful way to exit the spring bloom season. It also has a delightful fragrance. There were only three seeds in the pod that produced Boogie Woogie and Scene Stealer. Your picture is absolutely wonderful. I am still hybridizing bearded and have started introducing Louisiana's last year. This year have several pods from Louisiana's crossed to Iris Tectorum. The pods are full of seeds. Will have to wait to see if indeed this is a new inter-species endeavour or selfs of the Louisianas. We had a fantastic season this year. My 2009 introduction pictures have been posted as of last week at Hillcrest Iris"

AIS Checklist 1990
SCENE STEALER (Hooker Nichols, R. 1990) Sdlg. 8897C. TB, 36" (91 cm), ML ; S. laced white, violet midrib and base; F. purple, edged white, large white zonal area; beards orange yellow and white; ruffled; pronounced fragrance. Diddler X Song of Spring. Hillcrest 1998. HM 2001.

Scene Stealer is available in New Zealand from Amazing Iris Garden, in France from Cayeaux Iris, there are several stockist in The USA.

Photo credit and Copyright Irishunter

*****

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'A Blooming Business' Movie Review

Last Friday I went to the much anticipated Wellington Film Festival screening of the documentary 'A Blooming Business' which according to the advance publicity, hoopla, and ballyhoo is supposed to be a hard hitting documentary on the Dutch owned flower growing industry in Kenya. This movie goes nowhere near documenting reality and is more of a casual interview with people that are reported to be involved in the industry in one form or another, sprinkled with 'hearsay'.  Fluctuating between occasionally being interesting, to the repetitiveness of a worker walking past some greenhouses, chatting about what goes on in the industry, other people catching buses at dawn or dusk or queuing outside some farm gates. The only view of the real workings of the industry is when a worker risking his job smuggles a video camera into one of the farms but the footage regrettably lasts only for minutes. 

The Director called this a poetic documentary, yet in the end credits there is a dedication to the people who became unemployed because they cooperated with the making of this film, now you would have to agree that is a hell of a price to pay for participating in something that did not change the lot of the workers involved in the Kenya Flower industry.

The subject matter does have a lot of going for it, and whilst I am certain that the implied problems do exist within the Flower growing industry in Africa, the problems deserve to be tackled hard and highlighted and when so many other documentaries are making the same point about the poor conditions of workers in Africa a great deal better, 'A Blooming Business" just doesn't make the cut and is best described as just plain clumsy.

  Definitely gets my pick as the winner of the "2009 RETURN TO THE DIRECTOR AWARD"

*****

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Tall Bearded Iris "GOLDEN PANTHER"

DYKES MEMORIAL MEDAL 2009

GOLDEN PANTHER (Tasco 2000) TB 34" (86 cm), M, Heavily ruffled gold, overlaid bronze, highlighted with darker bronze at the edge, bright golden orange beard. Guadalajara X 90-02-03: (Marsh Light x Dazzling Gold) AIS HM 2002, AIS AM 2004, #1 Favorite Guest Iris at Memphis 2002 American Iris Society National Convention. Winner of the Presidents Cup award at the 2004 AIS Convention, Fresno, California.Wister Medal 2006, Dykes Medal winner 2009.

And how profound was Perry Dyer writing in his 'CONTEMPORARY VIEWS'– 2005/2006.

'I continue to be impressed with GOLDEN PANTHER (Tasco 2000), back to the first time I saw it as a reselect at Superstition. It receives A+ ratings in every category – branching is consistent, with strong stalks displaying well-spaced modified candelabra branching; plants are healthy and vigorous with excellent increase; form is impeccable, rounded with a finished look to its ruffling. The true test, especially for this color range, is its sun-resistance. It never burns, even in the hot dry climate of Oklahoma or central California. It retains its clarity of color even in a wet spring, a significant accomplishment in this color class, when this type of weather conditions tend to “muddy up” the picture. It has been consistent in every part of the country it has appeared, a true testament to its worthiness for consideration of the Dykes Medal.'

Big hat tip to Rick Tasco and Rodger Duncan of Superstition Gardens who took the time out from their very busy order filling season, to send the above photo. Many Thanks guy's and Congratulations Rick on your very fine win.

Photo credit and copyright, Rick Tasco, Superstition Garden

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