Re: Rebloomers and Rot (Was IMMORTALITY)
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Rebloomers and Rot (Was IMMORTALITY)
- From: m*@tricities.net (Mike Lowe)
- Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 18:13:09 -0700 (MST)
Jim Wilson writes...
>...it continually amazes me how you (and Sharon,
>and Clarence, and others) keep coming up with
>all of this information....
Most of the data accumulation, theorization, speculation and research is
accomplished because it is almost more fun than anything that can be done
that is not illegal, immoral or likely to scare horses...
Case in point: if you are not a member of the Reblooming Iris Society it
would be worth your while to buy, beg or steal an issue of the 1987 Spring
'Recorder.'
Clarence Mahan has an article therein that will educate, empower and
inspire anyone who has ever felt the urge to create by bringing together
anther and stigmatic lip. I won't pull the curtain aside prematurely but
will use one instance of a prodigious research effort to illustrate how
Jim's query can be answered.
Clarence was searching iris literature for any mention of a specific iris
species under-employed and under-reported in the background of reblooming
iris cultivars. To detail where this species had been used necessitated a
read of iris literature from inception to approximately 1920. (The species
does NOT appear behind the approx. 1500 reblooming cultivars for which I
have worked out pedigrees reaching back to species/unknowns.)
In addition to the species, Clarence was searching for mention of usage of
a particular clone, R-4. This search was somewhat circumscribed by
knowledge that R-4 was a Dr. Randolph collected clone and would have been
reported in the literature spanning mid 50s to possibly mid 70s. (I spent a
number of hours on the search but went baying down a wrong trail, assuming
the citation was reported in one of sixty issues of the 'Medianite'.)
Clarence, either through an inspired hunch or dogged effort, ran the
citation to earth in a copy of 'The Reblooming Iris Reporter.' Notice that
I said 'REPORTER.' This was the predecessor to the present day RIR, edited
and published by Edwin Rundlett, prior to the formation of the Reblooming
Iris Society.
A collection of iris literature that would adequately support research of
this sort exists in few places in the world. Clarence has, through dint of
extraordinary effort, patience and buckets of legal tender, put together a
collection that will support research to the depth and breadth that he may
travel.
It goes without saying that all of this is one h__l of a lot of fun!
Cheers,
Mike
