Green? It ain't easy!

By Griff Crump

Beauty, it is said, is in the eye of the beholder.  And maybe "green" is, too.  At least, that's what one might conclude after seeing what some of our iris fanciers consider to be green or partially so.

Here's what Wikipedia says about the phrase "It isn't easy being green":

 "Bein' Green" (also known as "Green") is a popular song written by Joe Raposo, originally performed by the Muppets and then covered by Frank Sinatra and other performers.

"In the Muppets version, Kermit begins by lamenting his green coloration, expressing that green 'blends in with so many ordinary things' and wishing to be some other color. But by the end of the song, Kermit recalls positive associations with the color green, and concludes by accepting and embracing his greenness."

Well, that may be okay if you're a faux frog, but if you're an iris, you're going to be judged, and must stand or fall on your own merits.

So, recently, I asked some Facebook friends to send me photos of irises which they considered to be, wholly or in part, green.  To these I added a number of others that I dredged up from various sources, including my own garden.  In order to make some sense of the results, I have, utterly arbitrarily, grouped them into the following various categories:  Veins, Chartreuse, Olive, Plicata, Green Ground, Blue/green, Green Gone Wild and "?"  Some, particularly the blue/green, could be (and are) found in more than one category.  And I don't anticipate that everyone (anyone?) will agree with the categories into which I have put the several cultivars.  As the title says, it ain't easy. 

I am much indebted to our friends who responded, and I hope I haven't overlooked any contributions.  There were several more submitted than are shown here, but both time and space have limited what I could include.

Please also bear in mind that some of the seedlings shown here are selected not for their beauty, but for their "greenery".  So, let's begin.

Category: Veins

It was soon apparent that many irises are given the monicker "green" because of the veins in the falls. 

The first responder to my call for folks to suggest green irises was Coro Martin, who is enamoured of 'Snow Tree's' veins. 

SDB 'Snow Tree' -- R. Sobek.  Photo by Laurie Frazer

After that, things got both greener and less green.  Tom Waters suggested P. Cook's 'Green Spot'. 

IB 'Greenspot' --  P. Cook.  Photo by Jensen

 

Loic Tasquier contributed his seedling B018N:

Tasquier sdlg B018N

and his seedling C050H:

Tasquier sdlg C050H

Seedling 05M1 comes from my garden. 

 

Crump MDB sdlg 05M1

Don Spoon's 'Greenback Kid' has what I would call olive veins on a chartreuse or light green ground.

 

SDB 'Greenback Kid' -- D. Spoon

'Green and Gifted' has olive veins on what appears to be a pale yellow-green ground.  Here is its description in the Iris Register: "S. greenish champagne cream; F. overlaid blue when fresh, fading to S. color . . ."

 

TB  'Green and Gifted' -- P. Blyth

My SDB 'Greenwinkle' will be introduced in 2013. 

SDB 'Greenwinkle' -- Crump

 Then, there are some of my assorted green-veined seedlings, including:

Crump SDB Sdlg Apr 13 013

 

Crump IB Sdlg  Apr 29&30 09 056

 

Crump MDB Sdlg GC 3 001

 

Crump BB sdlg Apr 16 2010 025


ditto (top shot)

 and a rebloomer:

 

 Crump BB Sdlg 07P6 RE

Almost needing a category of its own, this is Chuck Chapman's 'Conundrum': 

 
SDB 'Conundrum' -- Chapman 

Finally, it may take looking quite closely, or zooming the picture if you can, but this seedling, 07H1, had both true green veins and aqua veins.  Unfortunately, it contracted rot and was lost.  I'll be making this cross again:

Crump SDB sdlg 07H1

Category: Chartreuse

In the foregoing, we have seen that many irises are termed "green" because of the influence of the veining in their falls.  Now, we turn to flowers whose overall coloring is termed green, but which is, in my opinion, really chartreuse.

The first of these is Loic Tasquier's Seedling B 114B (and notice the green veins):

Tasquier sdlg B 114B

Then, Linda Mann suggested 'Green-Eyed Lady':

TB 'Green-Eyed Lady' -- G. Plough.  Photo by BlueJIris

 

Not, I think, much greener than my 'Maid of Orleans', which I consider to be a very light chartreuse:

TB 'Maid of Orleans' -- Crump

Here, again, we see 'Greenback Kid':

  

 SDB 'Greenback Kid' -- D. Spoon

Then, 'County Cork':

 

TB 'County Cork' -- Schreiner, R.

Chuck Chapman offered this bright seedling:

 
 Chapman Sdlg 94-234-1

 and his 'Green Gizmo':

 
 
SDB 'Green Gizmo' -- Chapman

as well as his 'Lookout Sunshine':

SDB 'Lookout Sunshine' -- Chapman

And his 'Wee Granny Smith' has plenty of green in it:

 

SDB 'Wee Granny Smith' -- Chapman

 
From Winterberry Gardens comes 'Granny Apple':

SDB (?) 'Granny Apple' -- D. Spoon

Here is my seedling 07H10:

 

Crump SDB sdlg 07H10

and another seedling from my garden, 093I21:

Crump SDB seedling 093I21

Olive

I have grouped in this category those irises which, to my eye, appear to be various shades of olive.

The first of these, suggested by Lucy Burton, is 'Gecko Echo':

MDB 'Gecko Echo' -- Kasperek

Loic Tasquier's 'Caonach' (pronounced KWEE-nock), which is Irish for 'moss'.

SDB (?) 'Caonach'  --  Tasquier

Next is Moss Spot:

SDB 'Moss Spot' -- D. Spoon

Then, several seedlings of my own, starting with 07A1:

Crump SDB sdlg 07A1

followed by 07A2:

Crump SDB sdlg 07A2

and 07A6:

 

Crump SDB sdlg 07A6

and another sibling, 07A8:

Crump SDB sdlg 07A8

as well as 07I2:

Crump SDB sdlg 07I2

and finally, 08I15:

 

 Crump SDB sdlg 08I15

Green Plicata

Just a couple in this category  --  the late Mike Greenfield's seedling 06DH-80:

 Mike Greenfield SDB sdlg 06DH-80

and, from my garden, seedling 07I7:

Crump SDB sdlg 07I7

Green Ground

The shades of green in these next few irises vary widely, but, judging only from the photographs, each flower seems to me to have a green base  --  and in both standards and falls.

Chuck Chapman's 'Green Waves':

SDB 'Green Waves'  --  Chapman

Chapman seedling 06-077-B:

 

Chapman seedling 06-077-B

Don Spoon's 'Senorita Frog':

SDB 'Senorita Frog'  --  D. Spoon

Chuck Chapman's Limesicle:

SDB 'Limesicle' -- Chapman

Category: "?"

This is the greenest photo of 'Easy Being Green' that I could find.  Maybe its verdure is just camera-shy.

 

TB 'Easy Being Green' -- R. Richards

Category: Blue/green

I am sure there are more in this category if we look around in our gardens.

'Wee Granny Smith' again:

SDB 'Wee Granny Smith' -- Chapman

And from my seedling patch, 08D2:

Crump SDB sdlg 08D2

and a sibling, 08D3:

Crump SDB sdlg 08D3

and an SDB seedling slated for introduction perhaps in 2014, 09Z10:

Crump SDB sdlg 09Z10

Category:  Blue/green Gone Wild

As I warned  --  not selected for beauty!

Crump SDB sdlg 07H3

Well, that wraps it up for now.  I must say that there are more and greener irises out there than I thought! With the cultivars we presently have, I think we can look forward to it becoming easier to be green.  And, considering some of the ones we've seen here, I can only hope that my seedlings will turn green with envy. 

If you've gotten this far, which do you think are the "greenest" irises shown here?  And do you know of any greener ones?  In either case, please pipe up!

Bagging Pods to Save Pacifica Iris Seeds

Kathleen Sayce

All irises have pods with three valves that open and spread when seeds are mature and pods are dry. Open pods toss seeds a few feet, shaking seeds out in the wind and opening a bit more from day to day. Iris pods often open at inconvenient times, usually on hot sunny days when I'm away from home. This was a frustrating reality for me when I started crossing plants and saving seeds, because I'm often hiking in mid summer, away in the hills when those pods pop open. 

I. douglasiana has green pods with three valves. Bag and save upright pods, not the sprawling stems. You will find the mature pods more easily later if they are upright.

I began collecting iris seed by designating small paper bags for each variety, adding pods to the bags day by day and week by week, cutting off the pods when the color started to change from green to brown. But inevitably, some slip past, and open on their own. Tracking seeds of choice hybrids was tough:  several times the pod opened and seeds slipped out, and were scattered in the garden in less than 24 hours. When you’ve hand pollinated the flowers after growing the parent plants, losing the seeds at ripe pod stage is tough. 

Iris douglasiana has the longest ripening period. Pods may take nine weeks to fully mature.

Iris douglasiana is the most widely grown Pacifica Iris, and its pods are ripe about nine weeks after flowering. Some species ripen a bit earlier, like Iris innominata, which has lovely yellow flowers; in five to six weeks the seeds are mature and ready to gather from this species. I learned this the hard way, going out weeks too late to bag what I thought were green pods and finding only the pod sections, brown, dry and open with the seeds long gone. 

Iris innominata can ripen seeds in five to six weeks. I know, because I lost all the seeds the first year this species flowered in my garden. I sauntered out in week six to put pod bags on the three green pods, only to find they were brown, open, and the seeds were scattered. 

There is a solution:  organza party bags, AKA seed pod bags. These days I check plants a few weeks after flowering, cut off flower stems on plants whose seeds I do not plan to save, and put mesh bags over the rest. For my original purchase, I got green bags, thinking green would blend in better over the summer. Not bad, but I now find bags all winter, even in spring, that were overlooked the prior summer! 

Mesh bag on green pod––unobtrusive, discrete, and could be easily overlooked in a few weeks when the seeds are ripe. 

When the pods are ripe, I cut the stems off, tie them together, label the bunch, and dry the pods still in the bags. If they open and shed seed, great, this saves me time prying open each pod. If they don't––and some late flowering I. douglasiana plants often do not open their pods––I slice each pod open along one side and pry out the seeds.  

If the seeds are going to a seed exchange, they go back into a clean mesh bag, labeled, and air dry for a couple of weeks. If I keep seeds to plant, I plant them immediately outside. 

The goal:  New seedlings. Note the styrofoam boxes, top layer of chicken grit, and mesh cover. The grit helps in heavy rain to keep the soil mix in place. The mesh wards off any number of animals and birds that think germinating Pacifica Iris seeds are tasty snacks. These seedlings will go out into the ground in early fall. 

I live in a summer dry, winter wet climate, which Pacifica Iris prefer. Seeds go into styrofoam boxes, in a well drained mix, covered with a thin layer of fine granite gravel (chicken scratch). A fine wire mesh cover goes over the top, to keep voles, chipmunks, jays, crows and other animals from eating germinating seeds. The seed boxes stay outside all winter, no matter the weather, and in the spring the next crop of Pacifica Iris seedlings emerge. 

I'd like to know what other iris growers think of using mesh bags, and what color of bag you recommend. I need to order more. I’m thinking red or orange for the next order. Or should I go wild and order mesh bags to match the pod parent flowers?