Today I received some species iris stock from the British supplier
Rare Plants Nursery (http://rareplants.co.uk), which is run by Paul
Christian out ot Wrexham, North Wales. Among them are a specimen of
I. darwasica, one specimen of the a "true" albicans and two specimens
of Iris sicula.
The I. sicula is what I'm inquiring about.
First off, I was intrigued by it because Mr. Christian claims it to
be a distict species collected from the Mediterranean isles of
Sicily, Malta, Lampedusa and Pantelleria, although current schools of
classification list it as a type of I. pallida.
Secondly, I already have a few well-established specimens of I.
pallida in my iris bed: cv. odoratissima and cv. 'Floridor' to
compare my sicula starts with. While I realize they're not even
planted yet, both starts arrived with rather large rhizomes attached -
3.5" long by 2.25" wide by 1.5" high, and weigh about 5 ouches
each. If this is a typical pallida specimen from Rare Plants
Nursery, I'd like to know what just what Paul's been feeding them?
Neither of my decidedly healthy clumps of I. pallida came as such
large starts, nor has the mature growth attained such caudiciform-
like size as they matured.
Has anyone else out there ever tried growing I. sicula, or grown it
side-by-side with typical European pallidas?
If so, have you noticed any differences between the two?
Do they get as large or larger for you than a typical pallida, or do
they get as big as a garden-variety Tall-Bearded? If my sicula
starts retain their proportions as they spread, I might wish to give
them a bit more room to grow than the typical species iris.
Thanks for your help.
Jeff Myers
Yucaipa, California
