Re: SPEC: Iris pumila

Iris pumila is a plant of the steppes and not really
an alpine. Alpines grow above the treeline created by
altitude, steppes are short grass prairies usually
created by restricted rainfall. Although many pumilas
are supposed to only bloom if they recieve a cold
winter. Ben Hager bred this trait out of his that he
grew and used for hybridizing. Robert Schreiner named
three of the pumilas that were sent to him,
'Carpathia', 'Nana', and 'Sulina'. The earliest record
I have of their introduction was prior to 1951 by
Rainbow Gardens. They were never registered until
recently. I have a letter from Bob Schreiner somewhere
in my files from Bob talking about their introduction
but I am not sure I could find it. The Dwarfs in the
39 checklist were either Iris lutescens or relatively
infertile collected hybrids between lutescens and
pumila, example 'Caerulea' & 'Pumila Atroviolacea' I
don't think the Schreiner pumilas went back as far as
1928 but I could be wrong certainly the were used
widely in hybridizing when they became available and
my guess would have been in the 40's. They were the
first true pumilas we knew in this country.

--- ChatOWhitehall@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 2/7/2006 1:40:22 AM Eastern
> Standard Time,  DWiris@aol.com 
> writes:
> 
> I have  been telling people that it was in the early
> 1930s that Bob Schreiner 
> got  the seeds, but it may have been the late 1920s.
>  In any event, that is  
> more than 50 years.  It has been 55 years since
> Walter Welch  published his 
> first 
> descriptive  list of dwarf iris species and 
> cultivars.
> 
> 
> Thanks, Dorothy. 
>  
> When I get out from under some stuff I am working on
> I will poke about in  
> the files and see if I can turn up that reference to
>  the date--for some reason 
> I am recalling 1928?--that is sticking in my  mind. 
>  
> Dave Silverberg was kind enough to respoind to my
> note and remind me of the  
> bit in Dave Schreiner's obituary in the Bulletin,
> BAIS 320/p. 110 as written 
> by  Keith Keppel which speaks to this point as well.
> Keppel says for  any 
> 'pumila' name in the 1939 Check List one should
> substitute the word  'dwarf.'
>  
> Tell me something else, please; about how far
> south-- or hot-- do you think  
> the pure pumila would do well, under ordinary
> conditions? Zone  6? It is a 
> true alpine, isn't it?
>  
> Cordially, 
>  
> Anner Whitehead
> Richmond VA USA
> 
>
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