Re: HIST mystery iris
From: Mike Lowe <mlowe@worldiris.com>
Chris Hollinshead writes...
>Okay. okay... I take it back...
>crawling slowly back into my snowcovered cave.
No offense meant -- I gave my OPINION and I am an opinionated guy quick to
flop a statement out as to where I stand on older iris. It is almost always
easier to argue the point of what you believe an iris NOT to be than it to
marshal cogent reasons as to what it is. (Also, both 'is' and 'isn't' are
unverifiable)
I gave my 'best guess' as to the 'Mystery Iris' ID as: Tropic Night (Morgan
R. 31 introed 37)
At one time we grew 250 Siberian cultivars. That number is down now but we
still grow a LOT of the older ones. About one third of the older cultivars
we have obtained, either as swaps, gifts or ordered from commercial sources
have turned out to be wrong as established by general consensus of people
who have been doing Siberians far longer than we have.
There is a lot of room for error when 'doing' Siberians. Respected
hybridizers have placed cultivars on the market with wildly incorrect
descriptions. A LARGE mail order nursery had their entire dig mumexed up by
the hired help one year and shipped a grab bag of wrong iris. A huge number
of older Siberians in circulation do not even come close to introductory
catalog descriptions and there are vanishingly few contemporary photos of
30s to 50s Siberian introductions. Roguing in Siberians is far commoner
than in other types of iris.
Your opinion is as valuable as the next persons -- and most times on
Siberian verification it is just that -- opinion.
Cheers,
Mike Lowe
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