Gifting SPCNI (or any organization)—with Longevity

Kathleen Sayce

Longevity for plant-interest societies like Society for Pacific Coast Native Irises and other sections of AIS comes from the dedication of individual members. Every person who takes on an aspect of management or activities carries that part of the organization forward. We are looking for new ideas, new approaches, and of course, interested members, to help carry SPCNI and other iris societies that are part of AIS forward into the 21st century. SPCNI will be 50 years old in 2022, and we’d very much like to see it thriving. 

Eager photographers at Rancho Santa Ana, 2012, looking at I. munzii x  plants, first studied by Dr. Lee Lenz, mid 20th century. 

In each paragraph below I comment on some aspect of running an organization that is foundering. I would like to hear from readers about each aspect, and I know other sections of AIS feel the same. Share your ideas!

Interest in Irises: A tall bearded iris is the first flowering plant I saw up close and remembered. It was purple, with thick fleshy rhizomes that crept around in ophidian fashion, and as tall as I was. To a three-year-old, it was simply stunning. Decades later, with a garden of my own, I joined SPCNI, having become an ecologist, then developed a passion for native plants. This took a garden (it was my family’s yard), an old iris (my mom soon ripped it out, to my dismay), and of course, flowering plants. How do we promote species - species interactions between people and irises?

The Pacifica Iris that led me to SPCNI:  Iris innominata; these photos are from wild sites in southern Oregon, where it is native. 

Members:  Membership is around 200 people. New members bring wonderful energy to organizations. There is a resurgence of interest in gardening and food quality, so an interest in flowers, and especially irises, may come along soon. How should we encourage new memberships?

Ditches full of Iris tenax x Iris innominata hybrids somewhere in southern Oregon on a field trip in 2010.

Participation: The board has been in place for more than ten years with only one change, a new seed chair a few years ago. All our board members are ready for a change, and this means others are needed to fill their positions.  How do we interest members in taking these positions? 

Print Issues of Publications:  There is interest in Pacific Iris; I get the emails when issues are late or missed. We did a full color print issue as a special treat last fall, but no one commented on it afterwards. I’m still wondering if anyone noticed! An AIS member told me that all our issues should be full color, but I wonder how many get the issues just to look at the pictures? 

Debby Cole at Ontario 2012 AIS Convention; iris convenings are great ways to meet people from all over the continent. But PCIs only grow well on the West Coast. 

Editors and Content:  SIGNA, Species Iris Group of North America, meanwhile is looking for content for their publication, and an editor; AIS is looking for articles. Our own editor is in the same boat. 

How do we encourage members to write and share images for publication?

Seed Donations:  There is interest in getting seeds, especially of new hybrids and stalwart old selections, but donors have dwindled to fewer than ten, and seed orders have dropped over the past few years to fewer than twenty-five, in part due to a drop in seed donations. It takes time and focus to produce selfed crosses or find wild plants, collect the pods, dry the seeds, and send them to the seed chair. The first time I cleaned seeds, I felt like I was connecting to long lost ancestors, carrying forward a skill that has served our people well for thousands of years; it was amazing.
Would videos help promote interest in this ageless skill? 

How about promoting gardening, so that vital skills like crossing plants, growing new hybrids, selecting high quality plants, and planning future crosses are not lost? 
Would more videos help? How do we encourage seed saving? 

Joseph Ghio, prolific hybridizer, active in several sections of the genus Iris; here with Debby Cole looking over his seed bed, 2012.

Sharing Information via Field Trips:  There is also interest in field trips, though the last time we offered to organize a trip, no one came forward to say “I will attend.”  In the past, these were several days of driving in the hills to see wild species. We are considering short, one-day trips to see a wild site, or a few gardens. 

Does this sound more attractive than longer trips? 

Superstition Iris Gardens, after the Ontario Convention, 2012

Display Gardens and Meetings:  We all love seeing well grown display gardens of our favorite iris groups, especially new hybrids. These take years to develop and major donations of time and plant materials as well as growing space. They go hand in hand with AIS conventions. SPCNI can’t fully participate because Pacifica iris don’t grow, or grow well, away from the West Coast.

Should we instead try virtual display gardens and meetings via video? 

Or try this:  Send the virtual garden manager five shots of your newest hybrid, he’ll merge them in a collection to stream? 

How about video tours of amazing private gardens or botanic gardens?

Please think about these topics, think about what you would like to see or do, and do post your ideas. We have some wonderful iris societies to energize!

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Autumn: Transplanting time for Pacifica Iris

Kathleen Sayce 

September 20, 2015

Many irises are easy to transplant at any time of year. Dig them up, divide, cart to new homes and tuck in. Clip off some leaves to reduce moisture loss while the new roots form, and away they go. Not so for PCIs. Treat them this way, and they go root tips up before you can find your watering can.

Healthy PCI transplants:  new fans, and healthy new white roots. Both of these I. douglasiana pieces are ready to plant. 

There are two times of year to successfully transplant PCIs: Autumn and Spring.

At these times, PCI roots are in active growth. Check the roots, removing soil gently around the base of a fan or two. If there are white roots, one to four inches long, then get out the shovel and start digging. It's time.

New fans on a PCI, but no new roots yet; this plant needs to wait a few weeks before being divided.

Why Autumn and Spring for root growth? Pacifica Iris are native to the West Coast of North America, which has a Mediterranean climate––during the drought period each summer, these and other native species go dormant. In mild winter climates, PCI may have live roots all winter, but they dry down and wait out dry summers.

Summer drought duration depends on latitude, the farther south you are, the longer the duration, which varies from less than three months to more than ten months on the West Coast. I garden at 46°N, so droughts usually last less than three months, though this year it was more than five.

If you water regularly, PCI initiate new roots earlier in the fall than do those depending on rain. You can divide and transplant much earlier in the fall and later in the spring.

This flat of PCI seedlings has been watered regularly all summer, and is ready to move into the garden.

PCI seedlings in pots are tough, and can stand being transplanted several times in the first year or two of life. Even larger plants, one to five gallons, can withstand transplanting slightly outside the Autumn or Spring periods. These have all had regular water, as they must to live in pots.

Other tips:

Mulch after planting to keep roots cool

Amend soil with carbon, such as compost and biochar

Move plants on cool cloudy damp days rather than on hot sunny days

Add 'Superthrive' (a registered vitamin formula for plants) to the watering can

Water well for a few weeks after planting

Use a dilute liquid fertilizer when watering

Every Autumn I host a 'Come and Dig PCI' day in my garden, to share out plants to other gardens in my community. I checked my plants this week; new fans are starting to form, and new roots are short. I'll wait a week or two, until new roots are more than an inch long. 

There are exceptions; one variety has long white roots and could be divided now, but it will tolerate moving in a few weeks. The seedling PCI can be planted anytime from now until early November. They are much tougher than fan sections, which is why growing PCI from seed is so successful for many gardeners. Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris will hold its seed exchange from 1 November to the end of the year, so now is the time to be thinking about what species and hybrids you'd like to grow in your garden from seed. 

New white roots, this PCI is ready for a new home.

For western gardeners, Autumn is the best time to plant many native plants, not just Pacifica Iris. Trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns and grasses all do well if planted now (late September to early November), as the weather cools and moisture arrives from the Pacific Ocean over western North America. This gives the plants a jump on growth for the coming year by establishing good root systems first, with much less water use now and in coming years. 

When Pacifica Iris Pods Are Ripe

Kathleen Sayce

Mid to late summer is exciting:  it's harvest time for Pacifica Iris pods. Some species irises shed seed by early July in my garden, including Iris tenax and I. innominata. These species often grow at high elevations in the wild, flower in May or June, and have ripe seed by mid July to early August. They waste no time cranking out the next generation. Other species take more time to ripen seeds, nine weeks instead of five to six weeks, including I. douglasiana. Pods often go through a color change as they ripen, from green to gold or yellow. Even when not opened, a yellow pod has mature seeds inside, ready to collect. 

Just a few weeks ago, seed pods were green. 

Iris pods are opening all over the garden by late July, when the mesh bags come into use. Here, all pods in this cluster have opened, the tips are spread on the upper two, and the bottom one has valves spread to show the seeds inside.

Mesh bags or nylon stockings are good devices to use to contain seeds and ensure that a gardener's work in crossing specific parents isn’t lost at the seed collection step. Saving even a few seeds from a choice cross can be important in a hybridizing program. 

I cut the stems and collect the pods, still in their mesh bags, to dry before taking out the seeds. The stems can be tied together with a wire tie or string, hung in a dry shady place, out of the sun and away from direct heat––just as you would dry herbs or flowers, or put into paper bags in a warm dry spot. After a few days, any pods that can open, have done so, and the seeds are ready to clean and package. 

A basket of treasure:  Ripe pods in paper bags, ready to dry indoors. 

Normally the valves separate from the pods, and the seeds break off and scatter. Occasionally pods stay closed or only partially open. Either the tip will not separate, or the sutures along the edges do not open.  When this happens, I use a knife or razor blade in a holder to cut the tip off, or cut along a suture line, being very careful to keep my fingers intact, and to not cut into seeds. Then I gently peel out the seeds.

Seeds go into a bowl. Use a large bowl that you can swirl seeds around in. This lets you blow or toss seeds outside to separate seeds from chaff and pod fragments. I also use a sieve to shake out fine bits if the pods are dirty. I clean the seeds and remove all non-seed bits and pieces, insects, et cetera. Separating seeds from chaff is a very old process. Humans have been doing this for thousands of years. And it’s fun! 

After the seeds are clean, I put them in a clean bag (mesh or paper), to continue air drying. The label moves with them. I save seeds for seed exchanges, such as Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris, and Species Iris Group of North America.  

I learned the hard way to not put fresh seeds into glassine or plastic bags––they mold. The mold doesn’t kill the seeds, it’s just in the seed coats, but it looks terrible, and when it’s really bad, all the seeds are encased in a dense whitish mold into one solid lump. Ugh!  If there's too much mold I scrub the seeds with a plastic scrubby to clean them, then rinse and re-dry the seeds. 

Drying seeds, in a row of paper bags. This takes patience, and at least ten days!

Let the seeds dry thoroughly before packaging each seed lot. I’m not naturally a patient person, so this is hard. Wait ten days, at a minimum. More is better. Only when the seeds have dried indoors, in a clean mesh bag, and I have let the days slip past, do I then put the seeds into an envelope, label it, and set it aside to send to a seed exchange. I also share seeds out to gardening friends, and this is when those seeds are mailed. 

Labels need to include what, when, where, and any details of the plant or flower that are important. List:  Pod parent, pollen parent if known, the flower color on the pod parent if it’s a species or unregistered new flower, likewise any characteristics of the pollen parent that were important to note, or bee-pollinated, if open pollination was used. If you use crossing codes to track garden crosses, write down those codes too. This helps you and others track the parentage of your seeds. 

Another task is to take all the used mesh bags, wash them in warm soapy water, rinse, dry, and then freeze them for at least two weeks. Why freeze the bags? If any invertebrate eggs are in the bags, this will kill them. Washing, drying and freezing helps ensure that the bags are clean, and ready to use again next year.  

Do you grow PCIs, and do you save seeds to give to other gardeners?