What is in a name? Lophiris - Crested Iris – Part Two

By Maggie Asplet

Finally, I have time to complete the second part of this article relating to crested irises.  Holidays and ill health sometimes get in our way.  I think you will all be the same when I say “it is life’.

To recap in part one we looked at I confusa, Martyn Rix, Chengdu, Queen’s Grace, Question Mark, and Kilkivan.

Today we will continue looking at some of these bigger forms of the crested iris, starting with I. wattii, with tall, tapering and sword like leaves which are heavily ribbed.  It has deep lavender spots like those of I. japonica outlining the haft.  This iris was discovered in 1892 by John Gilbert Baker, in the Himalayas & China area.

I must confess that this iris I don’t have growing at home, as I seem to have a great habit of killing it off.

Photos courtesy of Roger Haworth

Iris ‘Bourne Graceful’ 

Bourne Graceful has a medium size flower which is deep lilac-blue with strong orange-yellow signal surrounded by old gold to dark violet flecks and a violet border around the white signal area. The flowers are borne on distinctive green stems that become darker towards the bottom, but the plant itself has no canes. The long glossy leaves are ribbed and coloured purple at the base.

Registered by Dr J R Ellis in 1975.  It stands tall at 42’ (107cm) and classed an early to mid season for flowering.  I. japonica var. Ledgers X I. japonica var.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

Iris ‘Nada’

J.N. Giridlian of California hybridized I. confuse and I. japonica in 1936. The plant grows about 18 “ (45 cm) tall and the flower spike can reach to about 24’ (60 cm)  Although each flower only lasts about two days, the entire spike will remain in bloom for over a month as new flowers open to replace spent blooms. It is very floriferous and each spike will produce about 25-50 flowers.  

I am pleased to say this one I can grow quite successfully and I think it has the sweetest little flowers.

Iris 'Nobody’s Child'

This is the first of three lovely iris hybridised in New Zealand.  In 1993 Isobel Simpson registered iris as SPEC (evansia), growing to 11" (28 cm).  The standards are light lavender blue, edged paler; the falls are pale lavender blue, royal blue at end of crest, olive brown to deep blue spots; sweet-musky fragrance.  Parentage unknown.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

Iris ‘Honiana’

Hybridised by Mrs. F. Love in 1984, growing to 22" (56 cm).  Described as mauve with khaki brown markings on falls, white crests, with a sweet fragrance.  This is a cross between Question Mark X I. tectorum.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

Iris ‘Revie’s Legacy’

A fairly recent registration (Joy Turner by Ron Goudswaard) in 2010.  Taller than the previous two growing to 59" (150 cm) and is classed early flowering.

The standards are pale lavender-blue, darker edges, near white center; style arms pale lavender; falls are white edged lavender-blue, white overlaid with ochre brown dashes radiating out from crest changing to dark blue dots and blotches toward edge of white area; appears plicata pattern.

It is probably a cross between Question Mark x I. tectorum.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

I have not covered any of the smaller iris that belong in this section.  This I will leave for another day.  It won’t be long before we start to see the beautiful flowers of these again as we are heading towards winter (fall) here.

What is in a name? Lophiris - Crested Iris – Part One

By Maggie Asplet

When thinking about what I would write for this blog, it was before our main spring bloom season, just at a time when the sight of things to come was teasing us.  Many of our New Zealand iris lovers have these beautiful irises in their garden.  I am talking about the “butterfly iris” or more correctly Iris japonica and some of the different hybrids.

This iris is a native of China and Japan, a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus of Limniris and in the Lophiris section.  It is a rhizomatous perennial plant, with pale blue, lavender or white flowers with an orange or yellow crest. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions.

Often referred to as either a Crested Iris or an Evansia, and then there is Iris confusa. Confused, I sure am.  I quite like the term “butterfly iris” and look forward to any discussion relating to the correct naming.  This is one section of the iris world that I need to learn more about.

Iris confusa (?) in my garden

Actually, as I started my research on these irises, I was rather surprised to fine how many I have, so more research and understanding is required. 

The next one is a delightful clump of Iris confusa ‘Martyn Rix’, in my garden

Named for a UK plants man Martyn Rix, this iris gets bamboo-like stems to 2'-3' (80 – 95 cm) topped by fans of long green leaves from which the long flower stems emerge bearing a swarm of dark blue-violet flowers which are deeper coloured than typical for the species.

Another similar iris known as ‘Chengdu’, is often confused for the above iris.  Similar in size but slightly different in depth of colour.  Registered by Jean Witt in 1997, this Evansia SPEC grows to around 24” (61 cm).  Standards and style arms are light lavender, the falls slightly darker, signal white with medium lavender halo and a yellow crest.  Originally collected in 1980 by Jeanne Gardiner between Kanding, Tibet and Yaan, Sichuan, China around 3000’ elevation.

‘Chengdu’ in my garden, which was flowering in late September

Now to look at some of the hybrids created in New Zealand

Queen’s Grace, growing in my garden

Queen’s Grace is a cross between I. wattii X I. tectorum hybridized by Jean Stevens in 1955.  36" (91 cm), standards are clear lavender-blue, the falls same flecked deeper at haft; multi-ridges crest on falls, cream-white flecked brown.

We still have a number of gardens where it is blooming in New Zealand.

Question Mark

Registered in 1982 by Revie Harvey, this Evansia grown to 54-60” (137-152cm).  Smooth pale lilac, deeper toned fleck markings, bright gold crests, signal points radiate from crests, dark green foliage topping dark purple green canes.  It is of unknown parentage but probably I. wattii X Darjrrling or I. Confusa

Kilkivan

Registered by Mrs M Harvey in 1982, this Evansia grows to 54-60” (137-152 cm).  It is pale lavender with pale gold crest on white zone, numerous deep lavender signal markings, pale lavender style arms with fringed tips; deep green foliage topping medium green canes.  Parentage is an Ellis white sdlg. X Question Mark.

In Part Two we will continue to look at what I have growing in my garden, and others from around the country.

A Trip of a Lifetime

By Maggie Asplet

I guess it is fair to say that my recent trip to Salem, Oregon began in 2017 at the NZ Iris society Convention in Palmerston North where Thomas Johnson was the guest speaker.  On a couple of occasions I discussed with him the frustration of working with our “older” cultivars, and he said come over.  Didn’t give it much more thought at the time, until early 2018.

With not much time from when my final decision of “this is what I really want to do”, I was off to Mid America Iris Garden in Salem, Oregon.  This was the start of two and a half very busy weeks, mainly spent looking at iris, hybridizing iris, talking iris then more hybridizing iris.

Just where does one begin to talk about such an awesome experience?  Perhaps the most logical place is the iris.  Arriving in early May, the SDB’s were at their best, perhaps some just past their best.  Being allowed to walk through the seedlings was just jaw dropping.  First year seedlings had your mind spinning, and then to be allowed to play in the second and third year seedling, this is before they have even been introduced was just awe inspiring.  At this point, it is fair to say that it was overwhelming, daunting and exciting all at the same time.

 Discussing IB's with Paul Black, Bailey Schiller (AUS) and myself

Without much delay, well a whole day just walking around with my jaw touching the ground and wondering where to start, I pulled out my notebook, my tags and my pencil then got the tweezers in hand we I began.  The first few days were mainly spent doing SDB and a few AB crosses.  I delightful iris that is named after Thomas and Kirk’s little dashhound (one of two) Alaia caught my eye, but only time will tell if any of the crosses I have done with this one are successful.

'Alaia' the SDB and Alaia (on the left) and her best buddy Tula

Once I had gotten through some of the SDB’s the TB’s were starting to come out in full bloom.  NOW this was totally overwhelming, just awe inspiring.  Questions like – where do you begin, what do you put with what, which garden do you look at first.  It was really easy to spend too much time thinking and not enough “just getting on with it”.  When you finally get on with it, it is really hard to stop.  In fact I did a total of 180 plus crosses and all of them were done twice.  Again, just how many were successful, I don’t know yet.

Mid-America Iris Garden in full bloom (photo by Thomas Johnson)

The ability to have discussions with internationally renowned hybridisers would have had to been the highlight of my time away.  When you have Thomas Johnson, Barry Blyth and Paul Black all standing together, just how could you not be asking questions.  And it didn’t matter how strange your question might appear, they were happy to answer.

One of my strange questions was – If you had only one flower on a very special iris, could you or would you mix pollen to get as vast a range of crosses as possible.  Simple answer really – YES you could, but it would still only be a cross with the pod and pollen parent, just difficult in some cases to know the pollen parent.  As the iris has 3 chambers, you could isolate each chamber and have three “proper” crosses.  Not such a silly question after all.

From left – Paul Black, Barry Blyth and Thomas Johnson

Before I proceed any further, it must be said that Thomas was more than generous to me.  He had four other people staying – Time and Maria Rose Taylor of Riverdale Irises in Vicotria, Australia and mother and son duo Melissa and Bailey Schiller of Smokin Heights Irises in South Australia.  It was usually Melissa and Bailey that I got up to mischief with and would visit other nurseries with.

We were also very fortunate to spend some special time with Schieners, both in their display gardens and social time.

Group at Schreiner's Iris Gardens. From left, Steve Schreiner, Maria Rosa Taylor (AUS), Maggie Asplet (NZ), Bailey Schiller (AUS), Thomas Johnson, Melissa Schiller (AUS), Michael Barnes (AUS), Kirk Hansen and Tim Taylor (AUS).

Another special time, was visiting Keith Keppel in his garden.  There he was down on his knees toiling away.  Always willing to spend time and talk.  When asked if I could take some blooms back to Mid-America, his very quick response was – “Can I see your breeding programme.”  If you didn’t know Keith, you might think he was being serious.  Then again perhaps he was?

Again, awesome time spent sitting and just talking irises with Keith, Barry, Melissa and Bailey.  It made me very aware that there was so much to learn and so little time.

Apart from making numerous crosses, we did have an outing thanks to both Paul Black and Lynda Miller of Miller Manor Irises.  Paul was kind enough to take us up to Chad Harris’s place.  This was my second visit, as I was there in 2015 at the AIS Convention.  The Siberian irises where in full bloom; just stunning.  Perhaps the best was the little treasure that was blooming right when we arrived.  We were escorted straight to look at this particular iris as the bloom only last a short time.  An iris that as yet has not been given a botanical name, and so is currently know by its code name - Azure Iris. 

The alluring “Azure Iris”

From here, we travelled around to Multnomah Falls.  Not as stunning as when the group visited in 2015, but still beautiful.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch here thanks to the generosity of Paul Black.  From there it was a drive to Paul’s house in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Multnomah Falls

Our second outing was a girls’ affair – Melissa, Lynda and myself to the Japanese Garden and the Rose Gardens.  I don’t think you can visit the Japanese Garden too many times, just so much to see, such a peaceful place.

From left, Melissa, myself and Lynda

Perhaps one of the most treasured time of this trip for me was catching up with Lorena Read.  Many of you will remember Lorena as she came and visited us in 2016 for our convention.  She was attending the regional meeting and I had enough time to share some special moments with her.  Thanks also to Bernard for the awesome photo he took of us both.  Bernard will be writing a separate article about the meeting.

Lorena and myself (photo by Bernard Pryor)

I now feel like the mantle has been set on my shoulder to make sure that we now have new cultivars for all in New Zealand.  It is a long process, as my seed will arrive this year, be germinated in April 2019, planted out in October/November 2019 and may flower for the first time in 2020.  It will then take at least two years before there is enough to market.  It is now a waiting game.

A very special thank you Thomas Johnson and Kirk Hansen, for putting up with me even if I did have you in hysterics at time.  Thanks also to Paul Black for your time and willingness to your years of experience.  Keith Keppel, Barry Blyth thanks for putting up with me and I will see you all again in May 2019.