Building Galleries in the Iris Encyclopedia

 By Bob Pries

Here in North Carolina, spring has taken hold it seems a bit too early. But I define spring by the redbuds being in bloom. For many years I can remember the Japanese magnolias which are often called tulips trees opening their flowers for one glorious day and then turning brown the next because there was a hard freeze that night. This year they lasted a good week. The forsythias are about to end their bloom along with the crocus, and there are daffodils everywhere. But the weatherman is now forecasting possible four nights of hard freezes. Is winter coming back?

It seems climate change is bringing spring almost a month early. The reticulata irises have bloomed. Iris fans seem like they are growing an inch each day and many hostas have already unfurled their leaves. Hopefully, they won’t be reduced to mush by the upcoming freezes. All this chaos seems much too early. I still haven’t sat back and gone through all the plant catalogs to see what I might do to enhance my gardens.

This year I am working on a project on the Iris Encyclopedia* that may help me decide on what new irises to order. My thought was, “What if I could see all the new irises in one massive image gallery?”. In January and February, I began assembling this gallery. New introductions are mostly 2022 and 2023 registrations. So, I have made galleries for those years' registrations. Of course, 2023 registrations will continue to be added throughout the year, but this year’s introductions should already have their registrations approved.

There are already about 500 irises registered for 2023 and about 1,000 for 2022. I will continue to update these galleries as registrations are added. So while not complete these galleries can show an amazing number of irises. While creating the galleries I was impressed by the miracles our hybridizers seem to be creating. Color combinations and patterns of which I have never dreamed leap out from the page. To find my playground go to https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoNewRegistrationsFor2022.

New Registrations and Yearly Image Galleries

*EDITOR'S NOTE: The American Iris Society is always looking for volunteers to help add content and pictures to the Iris Encyclopedia. If you are interested and available for projects like this, please reach out to Bob at bobpries3@gmail.com.

 

Video by Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative on Year's Work

by Gary Salathe

In the world of the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) the new year starts as soon as the iris bloom is finished in late April. It ends with the iris bloom the following April. We've been very busy since last April and have now wrapped up our projects as we await the iris bloom.

 

We made this YouTube video to show our appreciation for the help we received that allowed our "iris year" to be so productive:  Click here to open video 

 

"Thank you!" goes out to everyone that helped us achieve our goals for the year.

 

I recently had a chance to sit down and try to estimate how many Louisiana irises have been rescued and replanted since I started this iris odyssey. It began with the Greater New Orleans Iris Society in 2017 and then was picked up by LICI in 2020. I'm pretty sure the number is in the neighborhood of 42,000 irises. 

 

Enjoy the video!

 

Info on what LICI does can be found here.

 

Details for most of the projects shown in the video can be found on the LICI "News" page of their website:  Click here.

 

The LICI Facebook page can be found Here.

 

 

What was your first flower?

Kathleen Sayce

There’s a theory that people who like plants and garden throughout their lives express that fascination at a very young age. It usually happens between ages 3 and 5, when we are avidly exploring the world. I know a birder who made that initial and lasting connection with another life form at age 2 (mallard duck), and wildlife biologists, ditto, ages 4 and 6 (rabbits and deer). 

A Pacifica Iris seedling in my garden, 2021

What was your first flower? Did that sense of connection change as you grew up?

I have a friend whose first fascinating organism was a pansy, at age 3. He saw a flowering pot at his grandparent’s house; his grandmother was a lifelong gardener. He picked it up, studied the plant, and was drawn in by the flower’s colors, complexity and petal shapes. He became a horticulturist, worked in well-known gardens and nurseries across the country, and now grows plants from all over the world, has a seedling garden where he grows dahlia crosses, and does amazing flower arrangements. Flowers became his life at age 3. 

For me, the fatally attractive flower was an iris, age 2. There was the snaky rhizome, creeping across the surface of the ground. It was so un-plant-like! The flower was stunning: standards and falls and shaggy beards in a fascinating asymmetry. The light shining through the purple petals was amazing. And the shape of the flower buds was simply entrancing. 

I now know this was a purple-flowered tall bearded iris, but to my young self, it opened up a view into the other half of the living world—plants. 

I wanted to weed out the grasses and study how it grew, but my mom disagreed. She said the flowers were old fashioned; she planned a vegetable garden in that spot. We had just moved to a new house, and the next year she did indeed put in a vegetable garden with pole peas and beans, radishes, carrots, zucchini, and an asparagus patch. I promptly began checking radishes every few days to see how the root developed into a round edible vegetable, but that’s another story. Suffice it to say my parents were not pleased to find the radish seedlings vanishing day by day. 

My love of that first iris flower morphed into a fascination with all things chlorophyllous, which led me into lichens, mosses, kelps, wildflowers, and eventually into Pacifica Iris. 

What’s your story?

In the Heart of Europe

 by Sylvain Ruaud

 

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing political upheaval had a major impact on the world of irises. We have already seen what happened in Germany. Now we will see what happened in the so-called People's Republics. The upheaval did not have the same consequences everywhere; but where it did, it gave birth to a new and not insignificant part of the iris world. This movement occurred in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, and, to a lesser extent, Hungary and Romania. The other countries were only slightly affected, either because of their geographical and climatic situation or because of specific or historical circumstances.

The cultivation of irises in the Czech Republic began long before the 1990s. With meager options in genetic breeding stock, clever and ingenious people had created hybrids. Such was the case of Vojtech Smid, who in 1985 succeeded in Florence with 'Libon', a variety that, despite its success, was never registered, because at the time it would have been suspicious to be associated with an American organization. But also, from that time, the great botanist Milan Blazek tried to make daring crosses, in line with his genetic studies. He was particularly interested in Iris plicatas and late varieties. Due to being isolated in his own country, it took until 2013 to get his new varieties registered. They are still showing their age despite their aesthetic interest. This is the case of the pink 'Jarni Sen' (R. 2013). As soon as American varieties became widely available as breeding material, many Czech amateurs began to work with them. Many of them immediately proved their worth. Take the case of Pavel Nejedlo, who made a masterstroke with the cross 'Desert Echo' X ('Rancho Rose' x 'Sketch Me') and the three plicata varieties he kept from it: 'Moonlight Sketch' (1998), 'Spacelight Sketch' (1998), and 'Sunlight Sketch' (1998); or of Jiri Dudek, whose few hybrids were appreciated wherever they could be seen. Witness: 'Papapubren' (2003). 

Tall bearded iris 'Moonlight Sketch'

Photo by Christine Cosi

But the undisputed leader of Czech iridophilia is Zdenek Seidl. This man of conviction is interested in all classifications of irises. In 30 years of activity, he has become famous and his varieties have won awards wherever they have been in competition, be it in Munich, Florence, or Paris. From his first entries, whether the yellows 'Pozdni Leto' (1998) and 'Zlatohlavek' (1998) or the black 'Bratislavska Noc' (1996), experts immediately recognized him as a remarkable breeder. As the years passed, his talent has only grown. 'Nad Oblaky' (2019) triumphed in Paris this year, and 'Chachar' (2013) preceded 'Nad Oblacky' in 2017, before winning in Florence the following year. Note his intermediate bearded irises, which are characterized by their small size, well within the limits and appearance of the category.

Tall bearded iris 'Chahar'
Photo by Stephane Bolvin

In neighboring Slovakia, Ladislav Muska is the champion of change after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is the epitome of a knowledgeable amateur. Like many hybridizers from Eastern Europe, he too started with a small pool of genetic stock for breeding. The available gene pool increased as more modern iris hybrids began to be exchanged, and little by little he was able to obtain the best American iris germplasm. His production was important and he even managed to publish a small handmade catalogue which he distributed to all his acquaintances in Europe and the United States, so that his varieties were spread everywhere. Not all of these irises are masterpieces, but many deserve to be in the finest collections. Especially his rich plicatas - 'Dreaming Clown' (1999) is the most famous and has even been used in breeding by Keith Keppel. Another notable introduction by Muska is the mauve 'Elegaball' (1999) which won the Moscow competition in 2003. 

Tall bearded iris 'Elegaball'
Photo by Sylvain Ruaud 

The successor of Ladislav Muska is Anton Mego. This discreet man continues to offer the world excellent varieties, both in terms of modernity and elegance of appearance and originality of colour. It has been a little over 20 years since his name first appeared in the iris world and there is hardly a year that has not been a revelation. The first shock was 'Slovak Prince' (2003) with its finely hemmed gold petals. It was an instant success in the USA, where in 2009 it won the highest possible award for a tall bearded non-American iris, the Wister Medal. 'Clotho's Web' (2010) won Third Prize in the 2015 Franciris® competition. Bratislavan Prince' (2010) came in first in the 2015 Moscow International TB (Tall Bearded) Iris Competition. 'Horske Oko' (2015) is arguably the first 'pansy-flowered' iris, and 'The Majestic' (2017) is a milestone in modern, exotic colouring reminiscent of aril irises. There is no doubt that Anton Mego can still be counted on to renew iridophilia. 

Tall bearded iris 'Slovak Prince'
Photo by Heather Haley

Tall bearded iris 'Clothos Web'
Photo by Christine Cosi

Tall Bearded iris 'Horske Oko'
Photo by Christine Cosi

Tall bearded iris 'The Majestic'
Photo by Christine Cosi

Further south, in Slovenia, part of the former Yugoslavia, is the home of Izidor Golob, who combines his hybridizing skills with a cheerful personality. He did not wait for political turmoil to take an interest in irises, registering and introducing his first unusual-for-the-time 'Mojka', an apricot iris, in 1978, followed by a series of rather unpretentious but successful cultivars, such as 'Majski Dotik' (2009), whose pedigree includes a pleasant white variety bred by the aforementioned Czech Milan Blazek.

Tall bearded iris 'Majski Dotik'
Photo by Sylvain Ruaud

One does not necessarily imagine that irises are available in Lithuania—but they are. Thanks go to Laimonis Zakis, a talented hybridizer who has been working on this plant since 2006, after a trip to Florence, but who refuses to register his varieties, which unfortunately keeps him on the fringes of the rest of the iris world. Many of his varieties would deserve international distribution, but this is out of the question as long as they remain semi-clandestine. The flower of 'Abavas Perle' (circa 2010) gives an idea of his production.

The main part of this Eastern European survey is Poland. It is the largest and most populous country and the one where iris cultivation has expanded the most. In truth, hybridizers are not particularly numerous there, but they appeared at the end of the Soviet bloc and have been renewed regularly since that time. One of the very first was Lech Komarnicki. An interesting and uncommon character, this former dramatic artist became interested in irises as soon as he left the stage and retired to his property in western Poland. He began by hybridizing tall bearded irises -- 'Poranna Mgielka' (2010) is an example of his work --  but he had many misadventures with them due to the harsh and humid climate of his region. He has preferred working on Siberian irises and interspecific crosses.

Tall bearded iris 'Poranna Mgielka'
Photo by Lech Komarnicki

He was followed by Zbigniew Kilimnik, Henryk Polaszek, and, more recently, Józef Koncewicz and, above all, Jerzy Wożniak. The last named had a brilliant but short career.  He was considered the most skilled hybridizer in his country, and his reputation spread far beyond Eastern Europe to Western Europe. But he soon disappeared (reorientation? death?). Actually, the only truly active and productive hybridizer left is Robert Piątek. This fifty-year-old water and forestry official is now one of the most renowned European hybridizers. He works in all categories of bearded irises, but with a preference for tall bearded irises; and every year he graces us with at least half a dozen new varieties. These flowers began to spread all over the world and he entered them in various competitions: Florence, Paris, Munich . . .  . He chooses names with Anglo-Saxon connotations to make them more accessible than if they had strictly Polish names. He addresses all flower patterns, as most hybridizers do today. Sticking to a few lines is no longer necessary because of the possibilities offered by crossing modern varieties. However, he has a special affection for pastel colors and plicatas of all kinds.

Before we leave Poland, let's greet Kat Zalewska, who is slowly making a place for herself in an area where women are not so numerous. The magnificent rose 'Axis Mundi' (2018) shows, if not the centre of the world, at least a real emerging talent.

Tall bearded iris 'Axis Mundi'
Photo by Kat Zalewska

Eastern Europe continues to open up to iris growing. Romania could be the next area of expansion, as well as Hungary. We should be talking seriously about this in a year or two. But already this part of the world has become a major focus for this area of horticulture.