Thomas,
I also acquired the yellow form of purpureobractea from Lowell
Baumunk in '07, and it bloomed for me the first time in late March,
this year. I like the purple bracts on PB, but also the fact that
the flower stalks are multi-branched and long-blooming, even if the
plants and flowers are median-sized and a bit plain; it has potential.
I'm primarily an aril iris enthusiast at this time due to my warm,
dry So. California weather, so while the oncogelia Werckmeister's
Beauty was blooming alongside it that early in the season, I thought
I'd have a go at creating tetraploid oncogeliabred seeds via
pollination.
Unfortunately, no pods took hold on either plant despite several
attempts. I also made several daubs with PB pollen onto the flowers
of the regeliabred High Sierra Snow, and have two pods, but it
remains to be seen if there's anything viable inside when they
finally whither and split open.
The yellow PB finished blooming early, so I couldn't try it out on
more conventional, later-blooming tetraploid TBs. But last week it
sent up a late-season bloom stalk from another fan; sadly, I have no
more TBs blooming in the yard now.
If you are interested, Harald Mathes wrote an article titled "Ii.
junonia, purpureobractea & schachtii: Breeders Should Keep an Eye on
Them" in the 1998 Aril Society International Yearbook. Though it
gives no results of breeding attempts with PB specifically, it does
indicate he's been working with it for the past 10 years or so. You
might wish to try and contact him through the Arilrobin, another
Yahoo iris group.
Best wishes,
Jeff Myers
Yucaipa, California
--- In iris-species@yahoogroups.com, thomas silvers <tesilvers@...>
wrote:
>
> I've got the yellow form of Iris purpureobractea from
> Lowell Baumunk/Iris Colorado (before that I think this
> one came from Harald Mathes of Germany).
>
> I think it's supposed to be tetraploid. I'll probably
> try it with both diploids and tetraploids, but was
> just wondering if anyone has had any experience with
> any crosses using this species?
>
>
>
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