Showing posts with label irises in the garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label irises in the garden. Show all posts

Monday, August 24, 2020

Russian Hybridizing 2

By Sergey Stroganov

Editor's Note: In this second part, Sergey writes about some other seedlings he enjoyed in his first crop. Any of us who have hybridized know this special thrill when see the first children.

The next cross I liked was 18-73: ‘One of a Kind’ X ‘Mood Ring’. It bloomed almost in full, and most importantly, gave a large variety of fun seedlings with good branching and growth, including a lot of brown seedlings, despite the fact that this color is not common (most likely, these genes are carried by the ‘Mood Ring’?).

Parents first:


‘One of a Kind’

 


‘Mood Ring’

 


18-73A: standards are largely inherited from my mother, and it turned out quite unusual, in my opinion.

 


18-73B: I have already seen a similar color scheme in seedlings. This one won me over with its branching. Well, the combination of blue and brown (on the hangers and border) looks modern.

 


18-73C: now go brown - this brown-gold.



18-73D is lighter in tone and touches are added to the beard.



18-73E: this one impressed me the most of the entire party with its uniqueness.


18-73F did not blossom in full force this time.. also from a series of brown, with a striped iridescence.




18-73H and this color was also present. Note that almost all seedlings on the standards are visible venation, this is from One of a Kind.




18-73I again brown with strokes, apparently created to confuse me.




18-73J - an even richer brown and an even rarer color.

 


 


And finally for today-Seedling 18-343A: 'In the Morning ' X 'Another Suggestion'. From this cross, only 2 seedlings bloomed - the first was unsuccessful, but this one exceeded my expectations and became my favorite seedling this season.



 

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Iris Garden: Premio Firenze -- Florence, Italy, Part II

Part II: The Iris Garden
By Andi Rivarola


Iris pallida and olive trees at the Prunetti Farm in Chianti area
Various activities and initiatives have taken place during the life of Premio Firenze and some of the most important to are: 

  • In 1963, the planning and development of the "First International Iris Symposium" 
  • Collaborated since 1997 with the Department of Plant Biology of the University "La Sapienza" in Rome by participating in meetings and seminars.
  • Collaborated since 1998 with the University "La Sapienza" in Rome and The Lynnean Society in London to promote the Iris International Conference "Iris & Iridaceae: Diversity and Methodology."
  • In 2006, the planning and development of the "Second International Iris Symposium."



Winner of the 2012 Competition "Cheyenne My Dog" by Marucchi
Premio Firenze also took part in exhibitions and specialized events in the field of landscape and gardening, organized exhibitions, courses  in hybridization, courses for judges and lectures in schools.

2012 Firenze Competition Signs 
The Main Garden

The Iris Garden was set up on a hilly land previously cultivated but now surrounded by olive trees as well as other plants of the native Tuscan collections including: cypress trees, Judas trees (Cercis siliquastrum L.), strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo L.), laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) and some varieties of maples. Irises are accompanied by roses, and also bushes to highlight paths and walkways. But it is the iris plants and their variety of forms and colors that almost completely cover the garden and when they are in full bloom turn it into a colorful landscape. The vast majority of irises are tall bearded (almost 3000), but there are also intermediate, border and dwarf irises. The international competition variety has practically guaranteed continued improvement and renovation of the main iris collection, making it one of the largest and interesting in the world.

Judges in the Garden - Zdenek Seidl, Jill Bonino, Laura Bassino, Gisela Danthe, Augusto Bianco

Ponte Vecchio and River Arno, Florence
The garden also contains Siberian irises, Pacific Coast Native, spurias, and around the pond area there are some Louisiana, pseudoacorus and Japanese irises.

Bearded and beardless species irises typical in the region are represented by iris pallida, iris germanica, iris florentina, iris setosa, iris unguicularis, and iris ochroleuca 


There are numerous collections of historic irises in the garden among which we should mention:



  • The collection of the American Dykes Medal Winners since 1927 to today. 
  • Some historic irises from the Presby Memorial Garden in Montclair, NJ.
  • Historic irises from the Prague Botanical Garden, the Czech Republic.
  • A full collection of plants of the first and second prize winners of the international competition since 1957.
  • And also a selection of all the plants that participated in the competition, organized by years, from the first competition to date.

A part of the garden was reserved for ARSIA, a local Tuscan agency focused on development and innovation in the agriculture and forestry industry, and the plants included were chosen for their conservation of genetic material of the genus iris.


Valerio Romano, Director of the Firenze Competition, in the Garden

The Garden at Villa Gamberaia

Note: This article contains information originally shared online in Italian by Saverio Pepe, a resident of Florence, who kindly gave permission to use his material and images for this blog post. The pictures on Part II are all from Jill Bonino who participated in Premio Firenze as a judge in 2012. 


Translated by Andi Rivarola 


If you missed Part I


Monday, May 13, 2013

LA Irises Grow Well with Other Plants

 By Ron Killingsworth


When iris growers think of Louisiana (LA) irises, they often think of irises growing in swamps or at least in ponds ('tanks' in Texas).  LA irises certainly like to grow in water and in their native environment they are often found growing in bodies of water.  However, LA irises are perfectly happy growing with other plants.  We grow them with tall bearded irises, with roses, with hostas and many different "wild flowers".  You probably do not want to try to grow LA irises with your cacti but they are happy to grow with most other plants requiring a normal amount of water and sunlight.  Below I have posted some pictures of LA irises growing in many different locations and with many different plants.  It you are ever in New Orleans, LA, in early April, be sure to visit the New Orleans City Park, especially the "big pond".  Some of the pictures below show irises growing in City Park.

Close up of poppies and "hardy" gladiolas growing with LA irises in LA
LA irises growing with "Angel Trumpets" and other plants in NW LA
"Hardy glads" growing with wild flowers and LA irises




LA Irises growing with "Swamp Lilies" at Lafayette, LA



LA Irises growing in edge of "Big Pond" at New Orleans City Park

LA Irises in a bed at Longue Vue House and Gardens, New Orleans, LA


LA irises and mallard ducks at Big Pond in City Park, New Orleans, LA


LA Irises growing with other plants

LA Irises growing in large plastic pots at LA Iris Farm, Lafayette, LA

LA Irises growing near palms by pond in the Sculpture Garden, City Park, New Orleans, LA


Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  You can learn more about LA irises at the Society for LA Irises,  and about many different kinds of irises at the American Iris Society website.  For more lovely photos, visit the website for Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans.  Interested in knowing more about New Orleans City Park? Click the link.

Now is the time to order your irises for next year.



Sunday, September 2, 2012

Dreaming Pink Siberians


By Bob Hollingworth

Clear pink is a color we do not much associate with Siberians. There is white, blue, violet, lavender, red-violet, purple and now red/yellow blends, but not really a true pink. Pink is the poor relative as a color. Pink in irises can come from one of two sources, either from carotenoid (yellow, orange and pink) pigments or anthocyanins (blue, red, lavender and violet colors). Bearded irises have both types, and so clear pinks are not uncommon – think 'Beverly Sills' for instance. But, so far, there is no evidence for a carotenoid pink in Siberians (or other beardless irises to the best of my limited knowledge). So pink has to come through the anthocyanins, and of course this can give pinkish Siberians, but always with a bluish cast (lavender-pink, orchid-pink) – e.g. 'Pink Haze' (McGarvey, 1980) or 'Mary Louis Michie' (AM Miller, 1995). The fact that there has been little advance in achieving clearer pinks in Siberians in many years suggests that this is not necessarily an easy field to cultivate, but for that reason it is tempting as well as challenging.
'Pink Haze'

As with so many other things, working in this area came to my mind as an afterthought a few years ago when a batch of seedlings seemed to give some marginal improvement in “pinkness”. These still tend to the blue side of pink, but truly I think could be termed peppermint pink. One (09F3A3) is under evaluation for introduction. Perhaps line breeding can slowly improve these further, but I have a few other thoughts about where cleaner and richer pinks might come from.
09F3A3
The pinkest Siberian I ever remember seeing was Pink Haze growing in a far part of our garden in Indiana years ago. It was almost flamingo pink and seemed quite different from the usual color, so I checked the soil pH. For some reason it was 7.5, about the upper limit for Siberians to grow. Maybe that could explain the unusual color shift. So this brings us to the first thought. The color of anthocyanin pigments is quite complex and can be greatly altered by soil pH. Just think how the color of hydrangeas can be changed from pink to blue by adding aluminum salts to the soil. The pigment is the same but when it is complexed with aluminum, it changes from pink to blue. And, to make a hydrangea pinker, increasing soil pH helps, since this limits the uptake of aluminum. Could this be an explanation why Pink Haze looked so pink growing at an unusually high pH?  I guess we’ll never know for certain, but certainly the soil pH can greatly affect flower color. Which raises another question - are pink Siberians pinker here in the Midwest (with generally neutral soils) than on the east or west coasts (often quite acid soils)? A study of the effect of soil pH on Siberian flower color would be an interesting thing to try.

Just as external pH changes these colors, so does the pH inside the cell (which is not directly affected by soil pH). Also, different metals and the interaction with other co-pigment molecules can change color in a complex way that goes well beyond the bounds of this blog. Subtle change in cell pH (as small as 0.1 unit) can cause a surprisingly large change in the blue-pink color balance of flowers. Several tactics could work in theory to take advantage of this to give purer pinks - increased cell acidity, greater uptake of metals (aluminum) etc., but there is no obvious way to control these as a hybridizer, so you can only make promising crosses and hope for a lucky break in seedlings. Perhaps this is not just a pipe dream. There are quite clear pink Japanese irises with similar pigments to those in the Siberians.
10J4A5
I’m hoping that we saw such a break this year with one seedling (10J4A5). This stood out quite strongly in a group of new seedlings as a stronger, clearer deep pink than the others. One year does not a breakthrough make, so we will need to see this bloom again to be sure it wasn’t just a weird aberration in what has been a very weird and nasty growing year, but that’s what makes hybridizing so addictive.
'Fiona'


'Fancy This'
The other means to brighter, pinker pinks is to play a subtle game of combining the current lavender pinks with a light yellow underlay. Too much yellow makes brownish shades that can be interesting but are not the objective.






I think this effect may be what lies behind two recent introductions from Jan Sacks and Marty Schafer, 'Fiona' (2010) and, particularly, 'Fancy This' (2012). To my eye these have a distinctly richer
pink color than previous Siberians. Even more exciting is the thought that if you can get purer pinks with less blue influence through mechanism 1 and then combine this with yellow in mechanism 2, you could head towards true orange. Dreams, dreams.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Siberians and Species Irises: Looking Forward to June


By Renee Fraser


It was a great disappointment to those of us who love irises when the Triennial Siberian and Species Iris Convention had to be postponed for a year.  A mild winter and a record hot early spring forced all of the blooms 4-6 weeks early, so the Convention will be held in June of 2013.  As consolation, I asked  Brock Heilman, a talented photographer and member of the Michigan Iris Society, to share a few photos of the gardens to be featured on next year's trek. 


These are some of the gardens that will be available for tours at this year's convention.

Judy Hollingworth, whose husband Bob is a contributor to this blog and a famous hybridizer of Siberian irises, has created this Eden.

Hollingworth Garden



Hybridizers send their creations to gardens where the Conventions will take place, and growers and hybridizers take care of them, sometimes for several years, to assure a spectacular bloom and a wonderful show of new varieties for the convention attendees.

Guest Irises at the Kaufmann Garden


This is not your father's siberian iris!  Look at the incredible colors being created by iris hybridizers.

'Salamander Crossing' (SIB Schafer/Sacks 1999) 


Novel colors and forms of irises are on display at convention gardens.

'Lakeside Ghost' (SPEC I. laevigata Harris 2012)

Astonishing new color combinations are being developed.

'Tipped In Blue' (SIB Schafer/Sacks 2010)




Hollingworth Garden


This is just a taste of the beauty awaiting you.  We hope to see you at the Convention in June 2013.