Re: naming irises

---

Supposedly the AIS registrar follows the International Code for Cultivated plants as a accepted registration authority. This Code is assembled by congresses of horticulturalists that meeting usually every 4 years. In practice it has varied a bit. At these Congresses certain working groups that have been studying the code suggest changes but since 1950 these changes have been usually very technical and with minimum effect on what the gardener sees. Wilber Hettersheid was the botanist to which I was referring and I believe in still in charge of several of these committees. Changes are voted on by the congress (often as many as 10,000 horticulturalists. The Congress findings are used to regulate the horticultural industry by the United Nations Commerce Committee. Essentially the rules the world play by are for the protection of consumers against fraud. Wilbur explained tha! t in Holland if a Nursery sells something improperly labeled at the Dutch Exchange He has the power to confiscate and destroy their entire stock. Holland has a vested interest in supplying accurately named merchandise. Now that I have tried to explain the importance of following the code I will point out that maintaining Cultivar Registration Authorities is difficult and since many of those registrars are unpaid the central agency has little power except to pull their mandate if they are not following the rules. Given this many CRAs are not rigorous in there procedures.

While AIS may only be registering clones, the code also allows for seed strains. In practice I believe AIS has only done that a couple of times and perhaps without really knowing that is what they were doing. The Horticultural Code is a rather thick book that reads like a legal document. But technically a cultivar does not need to be a clone and the terms or only interchangeable in the sense that current practice is close to that synonomy.