Louisiana Irises Grow Well in Upstate New York

By Ron Killingsworth

Louisiana irises are found in their natural habitat in southern states of the US like Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas, and Georgia, among other states.  Louisiana irises are water loving irises and grow naturally in swampy and marshy areas of these southern states.  However, in the past 60 or more years, LA irises have been transported from their native states and now grow throughout many of the states in the US and in many foreign countries such as New Zealand, Australia, England, Russia, and South Africa. A recent article in the Fleur de Lis, the official publication of the Society for Louisiana Irises, highlighted a young couple in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who are growing Louisiana irises commercially.

Because they are so often associated with hot and humid places, the question that often arises is "can I grow Louisiana irises in the northern US states?"  The answer is a bold YES.

Over nine years ago a member of the Society for Louisiana Irises (SLI), Edna Claunch, became involved in the building of a huge international "Friendship Garden" with a sister city in Japan.  Located in Highland Park in Rochester, NY, it was planted with thousands of Louisiana irises donated by members of SLI.  The park was opened with much fanfare in the summer of 2004. The park is now a sea of blooming Louisiana irises in June and July, since the irises have multiplied.

These water loving Louisiana irises spend the winter under several feet of snow.  The spring comes to NY later than they would experience in their native lands.  The summer is much shorter than they are accustomed to experiencing.  None of this stops the wonderful Louisiana irises from putting on a show for upstate New York!  This success in Highland Park has led to another project nearby at the University of Rochester.  The "New Ayame" Garden that is being constructed on the campus of the University of Rochester was reported in detail in the Fall 2012 edition of the Fleur de Lis.

All of this Louisiana iris activity in New York led M. J. Urist of Tully, NY to begin the hard task of establishing a commercial garden for the purpose of raising Louisiana irises and selling them to the public.  M.J.'s garden has also grown into a huge success, and last year she donated thousands of Louisiana irises to the "New Ayame" Garden in Rochester. There were so many rhizomes that the University of Rochester sent a truck to Tully to pick them up!

Louisiana irises growing in Highland Park, Rochester, NY, in 2008

Massive planting of named varieties in Highland Park, Rochester

Close up of Louisiana irises growing in Highland Park in Rochester, NY

Large "clump" of a variety of Louisiana irises growing in Rochester, NY

'Marie Caillet' (Sidney Conger, 1963) growing in Highland Park, Rochester, NY

'Edna Claunch' (Harry Wolford 2004) named for the SLI member who spent endless hours working to make the Highland Park in Rochester, NY, a reality!

Hybrid Louisiana Irises growing in Highland Park, Rochester, NY

Louisiana irises growing with other plants in Highland Park

Close up of Louisiana irises in large "clump" growing in Highland Park

Louisiana irises and other plants in Highland Park

'Shizuoka Sunrise' (Pat O'Connor 2001) - a Louisiana iris named for the specific purpose of celebrating the establishment of this International Friendship Park in Rochester, NY

Louisiana iris garden beds in Highland Park

iris.fulva - a species of Louisiana iris growing in Highland Park

Large clumps of Louisiana irises in full bloom in Highland Park, Rochester, NY
Photos by Edna Claunch and by Gene Lupinetti.

Louisiana irises growing at the farm of M.J. Urist in Tully, NY, in the fall after bloom season is over.  Notice color on trees in background.

Louisiana irises that have been covered in snow all winter in Tully, NY, start to thaw out in the spring as the snow melts.

There is a large bed of Louisiana irises under this winter snow drift in Tully, NY.  See picture below of same location with irises in bloom.

Beds of hybrid Louisiana irises growing in Tully, NY
Photos by M. J. Urist.

So, as you can see, Louisiana irises are not just southern plants!  They do snow as well as ponds, so why not try growing some in your garden?

To learn more about growing irises visit the American Iris Society web site.

To learn more about Highland Park in Rochester, NY, visit their web site at Highland Park.

How Green is My Iris?

By J. Griffin Crump

Photography, soil conditions, and climate can all have an effect on how green an iris appears.  In the last post, we asked what the greenest of the green irises were, and we saw quite a bit of variety.   Actually, there are more irises in the green range than I could include in the prior post-- and one or two that I have to confess I overlooked -- so here are more, some with pronounced differences in the coloration of  the individual specimens, seemingly reflecting the conditions in which they are grown.

Veins

This striking seedling of Bob Van Liere tops the Veins category.  We certainly hope to see this one in commercial production.

 

Van Liere sdlg 24EM5

It was hard to decide into which category to place Mike Sutton's 'Return to Bayberry', but Colleen Modra's photo from Australia tipped the balance to Veins.

'Return to Bayberry' Michael Sutton  Photo by Colleen Modra

'Return to Bayberry' Michael Sutton

Chartreuse

Richard Ernst's 'Envy' leads the list in this category --  and a wide category it is, stretching from almost entirely yellow to almost green.

'Envy' Richard Ernst  Photo by Blue J Iris

Here's an early entry in the green class  --  Rex Brown's 'Green Quest', R. 1959.

'Green Quest' Rex Brown

And another early one, suggested by many, is L. Noyd's 'Pride of Ireland', looking just as it used to in my garden.  Registered as a border bearded iris in 1970, it was reclassified as a Tall Bearded iris in 1973 after receiving an HM in 1972 as a BB.

'Pride of Ireland'  L. Noyd

Still in the chartreuse category, but challenging the decision, is Keith Keppel's 'Secret Partner'.  And have a look at its varied appearance in different gardens!  It makes 'Thornbird''s variations look mild by comparison.

'Secret Partner' Keppel Photo by Mid-America Garden


'Secret Partner' Keppel Photo by Betty Jacobs


'Secret Partner'  Keppel

Barry Blyth describes his 'Devil's Own' as "brassy, greenish gold", and I'd agree, based on its appearance in France. 

'Devil's Own'  Blyth in Sologne, France

But in Oregon . . .

'Devil's Own' Blyth   Photo by Snowpeak Iris

The same goes for Monty Byers' 'Lichen' in Nebraska . . .

'Lichen' Monty Byers  Photo by Blue J Iris

vs. in the Loire Valley, France:

'Lichen'  Monty Byers  Photo by Sylvain Rouad in the Loire Valley, France

Here is Barry Blyth's 'Tuscana', as photographed by Chuck Chapman.

'Tuscana' Blyth  Photo by Chapman

And by Aurora Borealis Garden:

 'Tuscana' Blyth  Photo by Aurora Borealis Garden, zone 5a

Could some of these differences be ascribed to film or camera work?  Perhaps.


Olive

We arrive now at the olive category, and C. DeForest's 'Bayberry Candle', a justly famous historic iris.  

'Bayberry Candle'  C. DeForest

 followed by Bob Van Liere's 23GS24 which is to be introduced this year as Celtic Dancer:

Celtic Dancer  Van Liere  Iris4U

 'Ameila Bedeila' by Sterling Innerst has interesting olive hafts:

'Amelia Bedeila'  Innerst

And last in the Olive category, Anton Mego's 'Going Green'.  I'm an admirer of Mego's work, but I think that this one does still have a way to go before it can be called green.

 
'Going Green'  Mego

Blue/Green

Chuck Chapman's 'Ruth's Choice' is my choice for this category;

 
 'Ruth's Choice' Chapman

followed by Paul Black's seductive 'Green Oasis'.

'Green Oasis' Paul Black, 2013

and Bob Van Liere's colorful 24EM1

24EM1  Van Liere

Finally (and yes, yes, I know it's a Louisiana, but it's so green) is a new introduction called 'Reverchon Snowfall'.

According to Mary Swann-Young, on the Reblooming Iris Society page, Melody Wilhoit says Red Bud Lane will be introducing Hooker Nichols' reblooming Louisiana (LAB-5) as 'Reverchon Snowfall' this year. It has rebloomed in July for the Wilhoits, in central Illinois.  

'Reverchon Snowfall'  Hooker Nichols

So, there they are, their lovely colors at the mercy of the soil, the weather, and the camera.

Of one thing I'm confident:  They're gonna get greener. 

Exploring the Mysteries of Bloom Season & Height: Siberians

By Bob Hollingworth

It's really quite strange that we have never standardized how we communicate the bloom time or height for irises, even though these are required characteristics in registering an iris with AIS.  

The situation of bloom time as it refers to Siberians is exactly like the bearded irises as described by Jim Hedgecock in his recent post. To me the registration should indicate when this cultivar blooms in relation to other cultivars in the class, hence the E, M or L designations, maybe with a V(ery) added to indicate unusual earliness or lateness.  However, clearly some hybridizers use these terms not to indicate peak bloom time but duration of bloom with the designation EML, meaning, I suppose, that it starts early and blooms throughout the season and not that it can start bloom at any time in the season (which is quite unlikely, since relative bloom time is quite reliable with Siberians).

'Who's On First' (Hollingworth, 2008)

'China Spring' (Bauer-Coble, 1999)

The introduction of  I. typhifolia to US hybridizers about 20 years ago moved up the bloom season for Siberians since these typically bloom 2-3 weeks before the more familiar sanguinea/sibirica hybrids (although a few sibiricas can bloom quite early too). So the meaning of Early has changed a bit with time.  Cultivars with some I. typhifolia genes will likely bloom well before the pack, such as 'China Spring' and 'Who's On First,' or Dave Niswonger’s “China” series.  

The season used to end for us when derivatives of Bill McGarvey's later whites including heritage from 'Esther C. D. M.' and 'Gull’s Wing' opened up, such as 'Hooked Again'  or 'Blushing Violet' . But I believe we may have a new winner for latest to bloom - 'Pool Party'. The last two years this has bloomed for us so late you wondered if it would ever open - after many early cultivars were already bloomed out. However, this may not be typical since 'Pool Party' is registered as an ML bloomer not VL. We don’t grow 'Worth the Wait' (Schafer-Sacks, 2002) or 'Last Act' (McEwen, 1985), but the names suggest that they should be very late bloomers too.

'Hooked Again' (Jim Copeland, 2006)

'Blushing Violet' (Hollingworth, 2005)

'Pool Party' (Cole, 2008)

Unfortunately, it seems that nothing is ever that simple and there are a significant number of Siberians that repeat bloom (mostly rather sparsely) a few weeks after first bloom. If the repeat bloom period is clearly separated by a flowerless period, it is easy to characterize, but a few irises stagger along between these two seasons and never seem to be entirely out of bloom for several weeks. This characteristic probably this led to the most convoluted registration I know ('White Prelude', McEwen, 1993) which is registered as VE-EML-VL & RE!

Whether to indicate the “repeat” bloom in the registration (and advertising) is a matter of judgment for the hybridizer – but if this happens most years and gives a display that attracts attention, it certainly is justified. There is a genetic basis for this tendency.   Nevertheless, the nature and environmental conditions that govern "continuous bloom" and "repeat bloom" are still quite mysterious. It also seems that some Siberians repeat bloom more readily in some regions than others, which makes their characterization even more difficult.

Height is in some ways a bigger problem, since here we are giving absolute values (e.g. 25 inches) rather than relative ones (dwarf, median etc.) and of course this is going to vary from year to year and from place to place as growing conditions vary.  

With Siberians a good clump will often have blooms at several heights - shorter around the outside and taller in the middle.  This gives a desirable bouquet effect as seen in the photos above.  So which height to choose? And then again, the flower stems elongate during the bloom period and may end up several inches taller on the last blooms compared to the first ones.

I expect different hybridizers use different methods to handle this variability. I generally record the height of taller stalks (ground to top of flower) for several years before introduction and use the tallest year as the registration height. Why not the average? Because this way seems to me to best represent the genetic potential (under ideal  growing conditions) of the variety. What does everyone else do?

'My Little Sunshine' (Schafer-Sacks, 2010) 

In fact, since there are no size classes for Siberians as there are with bearded irises, exact height is not critical and it would be just as good to have relative classes for height as we do for bloom time.  Dwarf, median, and tall are convenient, but that’s not how the current system works, in part because “dwarf” has a specific meaning in the bearded world that does not translate to Siberians. We do have irises that regularly bloom much shorter than most others  ranging from the old sibirica nana alba (which is actually a sanguinea in all probability!) to more recent ones like 'My Little Sunshine' that bloom at around 12-15 inches.  Compare this to the giants of the Siberian world at 48 inches or taller!  Let’s leave  with the thought that the long and the short of the Siberian iris world might make a good topic for a future post.

IRISES, the Bulletin of the AIS - Jan/Feb 2013 Edition

By Andi Rivarola

For those of us who do not grow Reticulata iris, this new edition of IRISES, the Bulletin of The American Iris Society, may prove to be the turning point. I hope you will be as impressed as I was with the images and the article by Alan McMurtrie from Ontario, Canada. Mr. McMurtrie was awarded the British Iris Society's Foster Memorial Plaque for his work on Reticulata iris. His third article for our bulletin is Reticulata Iris: The Journey Continues.

IRISES is on its way to you right now, and hopefully it won't be long before you enjoy all of the wonderful articles in this great issue. The electronic edition is already available for those who subscribe to e-membership.

The issue includes a wonderful introduction by The American Iris Society's new President Jim Morris from Missouri, and IRISES Editor Kelly D. Norris gives a ton of fascinating information about news and information of the Society.

Other interesting articles include:

Whither MDBs irises and Pumilas? By Elm Jensen

Germination of Bearded Iris Seeds, by Bob Hollingsworth

Aphylla Genes in my Breeding Program, by Loic Tasquier

Announcing "News & Notes," by Robert Pries

The Sterling Project, by Greg Hodgkinson

The Care and Feeding of Rock Gardens, by Richard C. Richards

The Tall Bearded Symposium for 2012

and so much more.

For those new to The American Iris Society, as a member you may choose to receive the printed edition of IRISES, or you can become an e-member and read the entire publication online. The latter is a very convenient option for overseas iris enthusiasts. For more information, please go to our website's membership information section. 

Extreme Hybridizing with Margie Valenzuela

By Renee Fraser

Anyone who googles for irises or visits the popular gardening site Dave's Garden is familiar with Margie Valenzuela's photographs of irises.  She has spent countless hours photographing, commenting on, and posting thousands of her exceptional photographs for the benefit of complete strangers all across the Internet.  She typifies the democratic promise of this new technology and the selflessness of its best contributors. The American Iris Society World of Irises is proud to welcome her to its team of guest bloggers.  Look for her first post in March.  Meanwhile, let's continue our series of posts on avocational hybridizers and their very favorite iris introductions with Margie's work.

Although it is hard to believe by looking at her, Margie Valenzuela  began growing irises 33 years ago.  (At age 10, In the early 1960’s, she won the JFK Physical Fitness Award.  It still shows.) After she moved into her first home, she got a lovely surprise:  two purple and white flowers bloomed that spring.  Then one fateful day she walked into a shopping mall smack-dab into hundreds of irises of every imaginable color.  She was smitten by the iris virus, and determined to create new colors and patterns of irises. She began dabbing pollen in 1996; saw her first seedlings bloom in 1998; and introduced her first iris in 2007.

Growing irises is quite a perilous undertaking even under normal circumstances, but Margie takes it to a new level.  She grows the irises in her backyard and the adjoining steep hill, which are infested with rattlesnakes, coyotes, the occasional jaguar or mountain lion, scorpions,  javelina (wild pigs), and -if she's out at night- tarantulas.  Not to mention the wily wabbits!

She lives in Arizona, near the border with Mexico, where the climate is desert-like and dry most of the year, except for a few months of the summer during the monsoons.  Over the last few years the monsoons brought high humidity and higher temperatures as well as the afternoon thunderstorms, so Margie faces  extreme climates with extreme temperatures: 117 degrees for highs, and as low as 15 degrees without snow for lows.  As you might imagine, it's a challenge to keep irises alive at all.

Margie has a hard time choosing her favorite iris introductions.  Many have outstanding growth, great patterns, interesting and unique qualities, and a few are dependable rebloomers.  She was willing to close her eyes and choose a few for the purpose of this article, though, and starts off her list with 'Grand Canyon Gold', which has the 4-4-4 factor of 4 standards, 4 falls, and 4 beards evenly and properly spaced on the top flower of each stalk.  Consistently!  She notes "there’s never an odd number:  that top bud (if it’s displayed) is always in 4’s.  A clump of these is quite impressive.  I’ve discovered this trait shows up best in the plant if the rhizomes are planted in virgin soil, and/or in soil that is fertilized often. Weather conditions do not seem to matter."

'Grand Canyon Gold' 2007

Margie cheats a little here- her second choice is her plicatas as a group.  She says "the variety of plicatas that one can create is amazing!  Every one I’ve introduced is stunning in its own way: all are vigorous, dependable, and have great branching."

'Easter Wonder' 2008

'Birthday Magic' 2009

'Hidden Gem'  2009

'Vance George' 2010

With 'Calizona Gold' Margie honored the recent American Iris Society Convention of the same name.  "It’s so bright and bold that it’s a beacon of light in the garden.  It also has the 'lines and speckles' pattern in red which enhances the flower.  Substance on this flower is so stiff that it keeps its shape without any ‘melting’ in 100 degree heat. Great branching, great vigor, nice ruffles on semi-flaring falls."

'Calizona Gold'  2012

Margie's final choice is  'My Little Wagon', a near-red with hints of orange.  "It has the common form, yet it is so vibrant in the garden, year after year, and so vigorous. It has a way of drawing attention to itself and it knows how to put on a show." 

'My Little Wagon'  2012

Margie says that 2013 is a great year for her: "My introductions were not what I wanted... they were more than I had hoped for!"  

'Sunrise at Dawn' 2013

'Healthy Living' 2013

What does the future hold?  Margie enjoys making ‘wide crosses’ (crosses between plants that are not closely related),  "though I do plan my crosses with much thought. Too often an unexpected color pattern, or depth of color, or moving color happens by chance.  Some ultimately don’t make the cut, and some reselects can’t deal with the excess of desert critters and temperature extremes here to survive to introduction.  I look for uniqueness, vigor, form, substance, branching (in most cases), and overall good health of the plant.  I do have a few goals, but I keep those to myself, that way if I don’t ever achieve my goals, no one will know but me!"

With her angelic personality and deeply held religious beliefs, Margie is quite suitably considering taking up the harp.  If she learns to play nearly as well as she hybridizes, there will be a little more heaven on earth.

Exploring the Mysteries of Bloom Season & Height: Rebloomers

by Betty Wilkerson

Height

According to the American Iris Society, rebloomers must meet the same criteria that are stated for their individual classes.  My breeding program deals with tall bearded iris with the occasional cross in other classes.  The height qualification for tall bearded irises is 27 1/2" and above.  There is no upper limit stated, but an iris must stay in balance.  Many tall bearded irises have problems with falling stalks when the height is excessive. 

As you can see in this clump of 'Summer Radiance' (Wilkerson 96) there are stalks of various heights.  The stalks are measured from the ground to the top of the open bloom.  This should be done for a two year period.  The stated height is the average of these measurements in its home garden.

'Summer Radiance' (Wilkerson 96)  

As an introduction moves into the market, there will be some variations in the heights, and the iris may not reach these stated heights in the individual garden.  Soil contents, even micro elements, can change everything about an iris, including the height.  An early, hot season can create variations in height, too.

Spring Bloom Season

Tall bearded irises are the last of the bearded irises to bloom.  Season of bloom is designated within the tall bearded bloom season by VE for very early, E for early, M for medium, L for late and VL for very late.  These are determined in the garden of the hybridizer introducing them, and, based on my personal experience, may not be the same in your garden.  Again, VE means the iris should be one of the first tall bearded irises to bloom in your region and VL means the iris should be among the latest tall bearded irises to bloom.  These dates should be taken as suggestions, and may vary from garden to garden.  

It might seem that all rebloomers are very early (VE) to early (E) in the spring garden since they need time to bloom again, and indeed, most are.  'Star Gate' (Wilkerson 2005) is the only rebloomer I've introduced that isn't an early bloomer.  It blooms in mid season and can easily be used in breeding with later blooming spring only irises.  

'Star Gate' (Wilkerson 2005)  

As a hybridizer, you plan spring crosses during the winter.  The bloom season starts, but new acquisitions don't always bloom as hoped.  I rarely order very early irises because they can have a problem during a late freeze, although  I occasionally receive very early bonus irises.  So far, most of the new irises I've received with the VE classification are bloom EM in my garden.  

Rebloomers have pushed forward the beginning of spring bloom in my garden.  Here, tall bearded season begins with rebloomers and seedlings of mine that contain a lot of rebloom genes.  They will bloom for several days before regular spring blooming irises begin.  

In 2011 we had a light frost at the beginning of bloom season.  The blooms and pollen looked fine, but the pollen was damaged on open and nearly open blooms of 'Matrix' (Earl Hall by Lloyd Zurbrigg 1991)  'Echo Location' (Wilkerson 2007) and other open blooms.  When the frost hit, there were ten to fifteen stalks with open blooms on 'Lunar Whitewash'.  Crosses I made with this pollen did not take.  These are the difficulties faced by hybridizers working with early bloomers. It was three or four days before viable pollen was available.  

'Matrix' (Earl Hall by Lloyd Zurbrigg 1991)

'Echo Location' (Wilkerson 2007)

'Lunar Whitewash' (Sterling Innerst 2003)

By the time the late blooming irises are open, most of the rebloomers have finished blooming.  It’s hard to find anything other than ‘Star Gate’ to combine with late irises like ‘Iconic,’ ‘Haunted Heart,’ ‘Love Lines,’ or ‘Angel Among Us.’ Pollen from rebloomers can be stored in envelopes in the refrigerator for several weeks, but it’s such a busy time it’s often hard to remember to collect it!  

'Iconic' (Ghio 2010) Photo by Kent Pfeiffer

'Haunted Heart' (Keppel 2010)

'Love Lines' (Wilkerson 2006)

'Angel Among Us' (Wilkerson 2007)

Rebloom Season

My favorite rebloomers can bloom any time from the end of spring bloom until a killing frost.  To my knowledge, there is no correlation between the spring bloom season and the rebloom dates.  Rebloom can happen at any time and is determined by the genes of the cultivar, soil conditions, and weather conditions. There are only a few that can do this in my zone 6 garden during a normal season.  A few more can summer bloom in a moderate year, but few produce summer blooms in a hot and dry summer.  Cycle rebloomers are not genetically capable of summer rebloom and only rebloom in the fall when the temperatures cool and some fall rain has fallen.  

Additional information can be found at the American Iris Society website and the Reblooming Iris Society website.  Membership in the latter includes twice yearly publications called 'The Recorder.'  This publication reports rebloom from all over the continental U. S. and any other area that reports to them.

When do your rebloomers bloom?  Have you had summer as well as fall rebloom in your part of the country or the world?