Jeff;
Currently the lumper botanists seem to have the most
influence. Therefore Irises that may have been
considered separate species are often dismissed as
synonyms. unfortunately these synonyms often represent
quite different plants and despite their relegation to
a known species really represent rather distinct
plants in the worlds flora. Very little has been
written about Iris sicula. Your having other pallidas
gives you a unique opportunity to grow them and
provide us with some comparisons. I would love to see
your comments printed in SIGNA. There is so much that
is not written about even relatively common species we
can not be too proud of our current state of
knowledge. i wish you luck and hope that you can tell
us more as your plants develop. Iris pallida itself
has considerable variability in size and color. It is
the Iris that provided the pink genes for modern
tall-beardeds among many other traits. It seems we too
often ignore the diversity of wild species being
satisfied to let a single clone represent diverse
populations.
--- jeffinyucaipa <farmerjeff@earthlink.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
