Garry Knipe's Pacific Coast Irises

[FYI, this blog is reposted from 09/27/2021]

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7696495401112275586/2961022922296354434

By Bryce Williamson

For at least the last 10 years, plant societies have been in membership decline. There are many reasons for this. One of the important reasons for this is reduced garden space in major urban areas. As an area becomes more crowded, lot sizes diminish or fade into nothing. It is not a hopeless situation, however, for the avid gardener with a little bit of space. For the iris grower, a small garden means it will be impossible to grow everything, and specializing is necessary. When specializing is done right, it is even possible to have a hybridizing program.

Within a small garden in California’s Silicon Valley, Garry Knipe is specializing and doing it right. When I visited, one of the first things I noticed was the usage of all space—at the front, back, and even the sides of the house. It also helps, in his case, that one of the neighbors has allowed him to infringe on their property.

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From that small space and specializing in Pacific Coast Irises (PCIs), Mr. Knipe is producing stunning flowers. His seedlings regularly draw “ohs and ahs”at the local Clara B. Rees Iris Society show, winning many blue ribbons and almost always the seeding cup.

Garry has three goals in his hybridizing: bloom time, color, and cold-hardiness. He is working on early blooming varieties in many colors and the eye candy of whites, lavenders, and violets that have an area that is really blue or turquoise in color at the heart or center line of the flowers. To date Garry has only introduced one iris, ‘Premonition of Spring’ from the early blooming line.

‘Premonition of Spring’ 

‘Premonition of Spring’ 

His higher priority is the enhancing the blue and turquoise colors that originally came from Dr. Lee Lenz's work with I. munzii. Unfortunately, like I. munzii, the Lenz introductions were very difficult to grow and died off quickly. Fortunately, their genetic merits were utilized by a few PCI breeders in the 1970's. Garry is now actively selecting some of the stunning violets and lavenders with blues and turquoise shadings for introduction. That latter work has its basis in plants produced from the Lewis Lawyer lines as well as hybrids from Santa Cruz’s Lois Belardi and a seedling from Joe Ghio. The smaller space does slow him down and he can only grow 100 to 400 new seedlings every year.

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A third current hybridizing goal has been added to help extend the climatic range of the Pacific Coast Iris by making crosses between cold hardy species like I. tenax and other known good growing hybrids. These seeds get distributed to members of the Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris for testing in more difficult climates.

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Another garden interest of Garry's is breeding South African flowers of the genus Moraea. In particular, he is very interested in those species and hybrids that have very intense blue- or teal-colored eyes.

Since these relatively small plants can be grown tightly spaced, his small yard can accommodate large numbers of seedlings. Garry recognizes the help of Michael Mace in getting started.  View some of Mike's Moraeas at  https://growingcoolplants.blogspot.com/. His beautiful creations prove that it is possible to add to the gardening pleasure of gardens large and small even if he does not have a lot of space.

IRISES: The Bulletin of the AIS - Winter 2022 Edition

By Andi Rivarola

A warm welcome to those who are seeing IRISES, the Bulletin of The American Iris Society for the first time. If you are a member of The American Iris Society I hope you enjoy this new issue.

The Winter 2022 issue of the AIS Bulletin already available online, accessible via the Emembers section of the AIS website. The print copy has been mailed via the U.S. Post Office. On the cover, Pacific Coast Native Iris, 'Marriage Proposal' (by Joe Ghio, 2006), a picture by Kathy Oldham (California), Winner of the 2021 AIS Photo Contest – Close Up.

Note: to access this area of the website, you must have a current AIS Emembership. (AIS Emembership is separate from the normal AIS membership.) Please see the Electronic Membership Information are of the AIS website for more details.

The Bulletin starts with the 2021 AIS Tall Bearded Iris Symposium on pages 2 and 3. There are many images related to this subject and the list continues on pages 16 through 19.

This issue also features the Winners of the 2021 AIS Photo Contest, on pages 20 through 23, and then it continues on page 54. 

Always great information featured on Section Happenings, find the many activities of AIS Sections on pages 24 through 26. 

Read about the 2022 AIS Membership Drive that may benefit your iris club or AIS Section on page 27.

A plea for AIS Directors on Why You Should Be an AIS Director, on page 28.

The AIS Foundation announces the Ackerman Youth Essay Contest, on page 29.

Spuria is St. Louis is a surprising article, on the slim, tall beauties. Read and see all the pictures featured, on pages 30 and 31. 

An Iris Paradise in Savannah, is a lovely article from Savannah, Georgia that will delight you and may entice you to take a trip to the coastal city. On pages 32 through 41.

Don't miss the back cover picture of Iris laevigata variegata, by Willy Hublau (Belgium) another winner of the AIS 2021 Photo Contest.

There's a lot more to see and read in this edition of IRISES, either in digital or print formats. 

Not a member of the American Iris Society? Please see our website for information about becoming one: http://irises.org/

Happy Gardening!

Perils of Procrastination among Pacifica Iris

Kathleen Sayce
March 29, 2016

For those perfect gardeners among us, no pot of Iris seedlings ever goes a year or two too long before being separated and planted out. 

I'd like to know who they are, because this year I learned what happens when a styrofoam box of Pacifica Iris seedlings grows a year too long before division:  They grow their new roots into the box walls, out the bottom and into whatever medium is beneath. If the potting mix is to their liking, they also completely fill the mix with roots. 

A year past optimal planting out size, this dense mass of Pacifica Iris seedlings was not about to move to a new home easily. 

Thus, there I was on a sunny early spring day between storms, prying plants formerly seen as fragile out of what was formerly a porous and well drained potting mix of coarse perlite and half potting soil.  

First I tugged, then I tried to dig out some of the medium and gain some working space.  A few frustrating minutes followed with very little movement towards releasing these irises from their starter home. 

Sign of a thriving patch of Iris seedlings:  roots through the box into the gravel beneath. 

Then I resorted to my new favorite tool, a Japanese hori nori (gardening knife) and used the serrated edge to cut between plants, knowing I would cut through some.  Then I got tough, and held the box down with one foot and pried with both hands. Finally, most of the soil and roots emerged in a solid mass, which I was able to cut, not pry, apart. 

On the second box, I simply cut it open along the corners and took the mass of roots and plants out, and then cut them apart. 

Remains of the planting box to the left, a portion of the root mass to the right

Then I checked the plants from last year, which will go out soon, and sure enough, these young Pacifica Iris have also grown through the box into the ground and into the walls. Only a third the size of the older seedlings, they should come out a little more easily. . . 

Last year's seedlings are also ready to go, but I might not need to stand on my head to get these out, if I move them soon. 

There are undoubtedly some choice seedlings buried in the masses I planted––which is probably the worst of the unintended consequences. 

Why use styrofoam boxes for seeds? In the first few years of growing irises from seed, I found that dark plastic pots heat up in the summer, and when combined with normal summer drought, many seedlings died. I grow larger seedlings faster in styrofoam, which I deduce keeps the roots cooler. I may need to rethink the larger-faster-healthier choice and go back to slower, smaller and a little less vigorous. Or get out in the garden and repot them more promptly!

When to Transplant PCIs: Wait for Fall

Kathleen Sayce

Pacific Coast Iris (PCI) can be so touchy to lift and transplant that gardeners may wait years––letting a particularly choice plant increase in size so that half or more of the clump can be left alone, just in case it really doesn't want to be moved. Translate 'doesn't want to be moved' as 'dies' and you have a pretty good idea of the PCI response to conditions or changes in conditions that it doesn't like. PCI aren't easy plants. They are a good challenge to a gardener's skill set, in a rock gardening sort of a way. The payoff is that when they thrive, the flower show is amazing, and unparalleled in the iris world.

Iris tenax x innominata seedlings in their third year. These plants flower weeks later than modern PCI hybrids, extending flowering from early June into early July. Photo by Kathleen Sayce

I have a pale yellow PCI seedling in my garden that I left to grow an additional year, just in case it doesn't take well to being divided and replanted. I'm waiting this spring to see how it responded to being moved last fall. If it survives, no, if it thrives, then I'll be sending plants out to several growers to see how it does in other gardens. It has many marks of a new and desirable hybrid, and the flowers are nicely complex, with a delicate turquoise flush, golden yellow signal and reddish veins, an open and upright flower, a sturdy base of leaves and strong shoots. The current test is to see how it transplants; desirable PCI seedlings often fail at this test.

This seedling PCI last year had lovely flowers with golden signals, reddish veins and a turquoise flush on the falls. This year, I dug it up, divided it, and moved it. Will it thrive? We'll know in a few months. Photo by Kathleen Sayce. 

Choosing when to divide and transplant PCI can be funny to watch from outside the garden. The gardener pulls soil and mulch away from the base of the plant, looks closely, shakes her head, pats the materials back in place, then moves over to check the next plant, then the next... then goes away for a few days or a week. Or two weeks. Or a month. We are looking each time for that clear sign of a growing PCI–-live white roots on the base of the leafy shoots. Live roots grow twice a year, in spring and fall. In cool moist climates, new roots can grow for several months, almost year round, while in climates with prolonged dry summers, they might grow for only a few weeks: 6-8 at most in fall and spring, with cold weather slowing growth midwinter, and dryness slowing growth midsummer.

Fall is a good time to transplant PCI. These plants have sturdy shoots with white roots on the current year's fan. The new fans are visible as tiny sprouts above the roots, on the left side of both transplants. These transplants are from a vigorous yellow-flowered I. douglasiana selection. Photo by Kathleen Sayce

Why this spring and fall root growth pattern? PCI are native to the West Coast of North America, which has a Mediterranean-type climate. This means that there is a brief to very prolonged dry season each summer, depending on latitude, when PCI go summer dormant. When rains return in the fall, they produce tiny new fans of leaves with tiny buds of roots; and older roots just behind them, on the current year's fan, start growing again. The new fans elongate in late winter and spring, and shoots emerge to bloom in early spring to early summer, depending on latitude and climate. In late spring to summer, PCI set seed, and go dormant for the balance of the summer season. They awaken in fall with the onset of cooler temperatures and rain, producing new roots and tiny new fans.

Nurseries know this, and depending on where each is located, aim to ship plants when their roots are growing strongly. This is most often in the fall. For gardeners accustomed to shopping for new flowers by seeing flowering plants at a nursery, and taking them home, this delay can be frustratingly long.

Patience is everything in a garden. Growing PCI is a study in patience. You see the plant. You find a nursery that sells that plant, and place an order. You wait. That fall, or the next, it arrives, and you plant it, and you wait. Perhaps it dies––these are PCI we are discussing, after all. So you try again. When it flowers, you see that it's the plant you sought. Or not. And you try again.  But what a reward with success.