by Sylvain Ruaud
All those who are interested in irises have noticed that in recent years the results of the competitions held in Europe have given pride of place to varieties developed by native hybridizers. This is a new phenomenon and marks a fundamental evolution of the iris world. Indeed, we were used to all competitions being won by American or Australian varieties. This was true since the end of the Second World War and the resumption of trade. At first, there was only the Florence competition in Europe, which soon reached a reputation of excellence. Every year it was the occasion for hybridizers from all over the world to measure themselves against others.
At
the beginning, American varieties reigned supreme, while European breeders were
still recovering from the world war and were learning about hybridization on
the job. These were only western breeders, British, French, and Italian, few in
number and aware of the delay accumulated by their seedlings since the end of
the 1930s. This is revealed in the list of winners of the Florin d'Or. The
competition started in 1957, and the first European variety to be crowned was
'Rosso Fiorentino' (Specht, N.R.) in 1973! And the following ones were 'Libon'
(W. Smid, N. R.) in 1985 then 'Ikar' (A. Volfovitch-Moler, 1995) in 1995, of
which it is however excessive to speak about European iris because it is
originating from Uzbekistan! From this
moment the successes of European varieties became frequent: nine in twenty
years (with a clear Italian supremacy: one counts six Italian varieties among these nine winners).
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'Rosso Fiorentino'
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In Germany, in a competition that is less
demanding and judged by a popular jury instead of a professional one, the
success of American varieties is obvious, but this is explained by the formal
beauty of the varieties presented, which always meets with success in front of
a jury that is less sensitive to horticultural qualities. In France, out of
eight competitions in almost half a century, there have been only two American
victories, which tends to confirm the above assumption! However, in general,
European varieties manage to hold their own against irises from America or
Australia. In Italy, native varieties, which are always numerous to compete in
their own country, have won seven times in twenty years (1999/2018) (1), in
France, European varieties have won seven times out of nine, despite a strong
external representation (2). In other countries, this analysis is not possible
because a competition reserved for local varieties is held at the same time as
the international contest.
These competitions, which allow local
breeders to measure themselves against their colleagues from all over the world
and to measure the progress they are making, has brought to the forefront a
certain number of newcomers who we can expect to equal or even surpass their
elders in the next few years. In France, three new hybridizers have made
themselves known. They are Stéphane Boivin, Nicolas Bourdillon and Martin
Balland. The first one shone for the first time at the FRANCIRIS© competition
in 2015 with 'Aime Bay' (2015). The second was the star of the 2019 competition
with 'Beauté de Sologne' (2020). As for the third, he triumphed at the 2019
contest with 'My Red Drums' (2016) and in 2022 'Sylvain Ruaud' (2018) received
two secondary awards. Outside of France we can talk about (among others): Pia
Altenhofer in Germany, and Simone Luconi, in Italy.
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| 'Sylvain Ruaud' |
1999 'Settimo Cielo' (Valeria Romoli, 1999)
2006 'Recondita Armonia' (Mauro Bertuzzi, 2007)
2010 'Ale Viola' (Stefano Gigli, Not registered.)
2012 'Cheyenne my Dog' (Roberto Marucchi, 2013)
2013 'Vento di Maggio' (Augusto Bianco, 2011)
2018 'Anima Cara' (Angelo Garanzini, 2018)
2000 'Samsara' (Lawrence Ransom, 1997)
2003 'Belle de Nuit' (Richard Cayeux, 1999)
2007 'Solovinyaia Noc' (Nina Miroshnichenko)
2015 'Barbe Noire' (Richard Cayeux, 2012)
2017 'Chachar' (Zdenek Seidl, 2013)
2019 'My Red Drums' (Martin Balland, 2016)
2022 'Nad Oblaky' (Zdenek Seidl, 2019)
