I planted about 30 seeds from a cross I made in the spring of Iris
wattii 'Johnson Clone' x SIGNA 06S297. 5 seeds sprouted this
fall; three are shown in an attached photo. I submitted about twice
that many to the SIGNA seed exchange. No seeds from SIGNA 06S297 x
self have sprouted yet; I had lots of those seeds to send the the
exchange.
Back in the spring, I claimed "SIGNA 06S297 and the Johnson Clone
are certainly the same species", but Jinyan Guo, a graduate student
of Carol Wilson working at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden has
a differing opinion. I had the pleasure of a day in September
talking to Guo in my garden and sharing photos. While both SIGNA
06S297 and the Johnson Clone key out to Iris wattii, due to
the size of the flowers, from her studies she expects that,
genetically, SIGNA 06S297 would fall in with Iris confusa
rather than the Johnson Clone. Maybe someone will eventually do some
research to further clarify the relationships between large-flowered
evansias growing in China.
In a few years, I hope to find out if 'Jonhson Clone' x SIGNA 06S297
produce inter-fertile clones. Note that the Johnson Clone is
self-infertile. SIGNA 06S297 is very self-fertile. It produced over
400 seeds from it's own pollen. The Johnson Clone which considerable
more floriferous produced less than 100 seeds from SIGNA 06S297
pollen.
Happy Christmas Eve,
Ken Walker
Concord, CA USA
