Iris munzii is a species of pacific coast iris (PCI) endemic to Tulare
County, California where it grows in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
It is considered a difficult iris in cultivation, but Dr. Lee Lenz was
able to grow it at the Rancho Santa Ann Botanical Garden (RSABG), where
he did research into PCIs in the middle of the last century and is still
an emeritus faculty member. Unfortunately relatively few others have had
his success and for most of us interested in PCI species, growing I.
munzii has been largely a dream and/or a frustration.
About a decade ago staff at the RSABG found some PCIs growing in bushes
a distance from the nearest trail. They have the characteristics of I.
munzii with no indications of hybridization. In the fall of 2006 I
obtained a potted I. munzii at a RSABG sale. It bloomed the following
spring but died in late summer. I had selfed the plant I attempted to
grow seedlings from it; I have also tried seeds from a couple of wild
collections that have shown up in seed exchanges. Regardless of what I
tried, the result were always the same: the seedlings were resilient for
2 or 3 years, then died during late summer without ever blooming.
Conventional wisdom says that I. munzii is completely intolerant of
summer watering. No summer water is trivial in my garden, but the garden
suffers from hots spells more intense than the foothills where I. muzii
grows. When open pollinated seeds from the RSABG plants became available
through a SPCNI sale I decided to try a technique sometimes used for
difficult plants. I double potted the seedlings in terra cotta pots with
sand between them. In my case, the outer pot is 22 inches (about 56 cm).
In summer I water the sand regularly but not the inner pot.
Yesterday the first bloom on one of the seedlings opened! A photo is
attached. The one bloom might be just a fluke, but if plants are still
healthy and blooming in a couple years, I'll declare victory.
Ken Walker
Concord, CA USA
USDA Zone 9
