Fw: Iris pallida cultivars and nomenclatural question

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Hi all.  I think this didn't get through the first time I sent it.  It is a little out of sequence now, but I thought I'd go ahead and send it anyway.  It was originally send on Thursday the 24th.

 

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Thanks Bill for you comments on some of the cultivars I listed.  It is interesting that some of these posts are going to my work address and some here.  I think I confused Yahoo somehow.

 

Anyway, to address some of your comments.  I did not know that Pink Ruffles was offspring to No-we-ta.  I should have thought to check some of these for parentage in the registry (the few I have checked usually give nothing or say "collected" with an approximation of the year).  I have tried to grow No-we-ta and Pink Ruffles, and both have been a bit slow and weak of growth and neither has flowered.  I suspect that this may have something to do with parentage other than I. pallida, so your comments make sense in that way too.

 

I have several I. pallida cultivars with the "pink" color similar to 'Dog Rose', and will eventually get all of the colors marked in my list.  It seems to me that there are two basic colors in I. pallida.  One I call blue, the other pink.  Of course both are somewhat purplish and not truly blue nor pink (but close).  I find that the blues tend to be of a stronger fragrance.  The plicatas come in one or the other color overlaid on white. Most of them are "blue", but 'True Delight' is a nice "pink" on white plicata pallida.  'Fairy' is a nice white that shows some blue coloring in its styles and some shading on the hafts and claws (quite pretty), but I'm not sure it is quite a plicata.  It is interesting to me that most people are most familiar with the "blues" such as Dalmatica and Odoratissima, but the "pink" is what I grew up with as one of the "farm yard" hand me down Irises, and I always thought of it as the "typical" I. pallida.  I still don't have the name for that "pink" cultivar, but have eliminated quite a few names from contention.  'Pink Satin' hasn't flowered yet for me, and is still in the running.  Photos I've found are clear enough to show it is a pallida, but not to identify the clone with mine for certain.

 

As for the proper botanical name for the hybrids, regrettably the meaning of the name has no bearing, only that it meats the criterion for a legal botanical name of priority.  It seems that I read somewhere that one of the authors from the late 1800's or early 1900's had adopted the name I. squalens for these hybrids, but I haven't been able to track down the reference lately.  From a botanical standpoint, all offspring of I. pallida x I. variegata would bear that same hybrid name.  This would be an issue apart from the use of the names as cultivar names or their registration with the AIS.  It would give a convenient "handle" to use for such hybrids as a category, although I think for horticultural purposes something else might be nicer.

 

What started all this was a desire to group the like diploids together in the garden to suit my personal preference for organization, and also a desire to understand the origins and relations of the plants.  The result has been some interesting beds of plants, with the I. pallida beds rather striking for it's generally rather tall slender stalks with relatively small flowers, and with their often intense grape fragrance all bunched together and concentrated into one area.  The I. pallida bed I did at the Rio Grande Botanic Garden is near the front entrance, and got a lot of attention this spring.  Some found them familiar from "Grandmas" garden, some found them quite different from the TB's they are used to, and lots of people wanted to know where to get them.  The blends of near pinks, near blues, and whites is quite pleasing to the eye, and the absence of yellows, reds, oranges, and browns makes the color scheme less striking but somehow quite stiking.  Incidentally the bed at the garden is associated with a quasi-medieval planting at the front of a Children's garden with a big dragon and a castle motif entry.  Sort of fun.

Anyway, Thanks all for you comments so far.  I hope to hear more.

 

Dave