RE: TB:Form

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Walter,

            I agree!  We grow a lot of arilbreds and a few Louisiana’s.  Thanks for reminding us that the accepted form on these flowers is vastly different than what is “preferred” in TB’s and thank heavens they all aren’t supposed to look alike!! 

 

>Several recent introductions appear to have shorter standards than falls.  I was taught, 20 years ago, that the >standards and falls should be of equal length.  A plant was inferior if there was a noticeable difference. 

 

>I've quickly scanned my judges training book and can't find this under either balance or form. (garden section) Is >there anything in the book about short standards?  Something I'm missing?

 

This is the question I was attempting to answer, and I didn’t do a very good job of it.  They were talking about a TB with shorter standards and per the handbook on garden judging of Tall Bearded iris pg 60,  “Variability in form is acceptable as long as the standards and falls meet minimum requirements, producing flowers of good balance and proportion.”   The handbook goes on to say (3 paragraphs later), pg 62,  “The falls should be large enough in relation to the standards to produce good balance, but not so large that they dominate the standards and destroy proportion”.  If the standards are noticeably shorter then, IMO, the falls would be “so large that they dominate the standards and destroy the proportion”. 

 

One other thing to remember is that the handbook also says “Grow whatever varieties you wish, but cast ballots only for those varieties which clearly excel in all areas”.  So we could grow, and love a variety that doesn’t meet the requirements for form, we just shouldn’t vote it an award.  I personally grow several iris that I don’t intend to part with anytime soon that are not worthy of an award but still deserve a spot in my garden.

 

Hope this explains a little better, what I was trying to say.

 

Dana

 

Dana Brown

AIS Region 17 RVP

Director ASI, TBIS

AIS, ASI, MIS, RIS, SPIS, TBIS

Malevil Iris Gardens

http://www.malevil-iris.com/

Lubbock, TX

Zone 7 USDA, Zone 10 Sunset

mailto:danabrown@peoplepc.com

 

 

The first thing I thought of was that some of the LA iris and Japanese iris I like have standards much shorter then the falls.

Some aril species have standards much bigger than the falls.  Some of those I like too.

 Having a small difference between standards and falls may make an iris seem out of proportion.  But if the difference is great enough, you don't compare them, and can accept a different look.
Walter