RE; ZONALS

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Jan Clark writes:

I have heard these zonals called luminatas by some people, and other
comments to the effect that they are part of the plicata pattern. There
seems to be confusion here. Does anyone know? If you cross a zonal (say
DIVINE) with a luminata (say SPIRIT WORLD) what sort of pattern would
you get? Or will I just have to find out for myself?
Cheers, Jan Clark

Shears seems to me to set out the matter very well in his recent book The Gardener's Iris Book. He says: "A

Plicata has a white or light yellow ground color with darker markings of red, blue or violet applied

Around the edge of each petal…The markings often look like stitching since the color

Concentrates at the ends of the petal's veins. In many plicatas, the darker color is so generously

Supplied that the standards show little if any of the ground color, which appears only

As a spot on the falls below the beard." I take it that he is here referring to zonals which

Would make them a type of plicata. He lists the luminata as an offshoot of plicata breeding

And says "In this pattern, the white ground appears brushed with color, interrupted by white veins."

I would suspect that if you crossed a zonal plicata with a luminata plicata you would get several types of plicatas

Which might or might not in the first generation include zonals and luminata's depending on

The parents used and the number of seedlings grown. You cold also get selfs and bitones again depending

On what was behind the parents.

Julia Rankin

So. Calif.