More On Nz Native Iris
- To: i*@rt66.com
- Subject: More On Nz Native Iris
- From: S* <m*@wave.co.nz>
- Date: Mon, 8 Jul 1996 21:35:59 +1200
Hello to all from your tommorrow to my yesterday.
Sonya from NZ here
Ian wrote
>I assume that you mean that Libertia ixiodes is the only native NZ iris that
>is grown in gardens. Clive Innes, in "The World of Iridaceae" claim that
>you also have L. grandiflora, and L. peregrinans. On wonders why
grandiflora, >if it does have large flowers, is not cultivated. Is there a
reason?
Okay we call the L.grandiflora the "New Zealand Satin Flower" & to me the
flower is more like a Rose than an iris. It is a "termed" perennial here the
flower is not that large but there are alot of them on the flowering spike.
The L. peregrinians resembles a minature flax and prefer to grow in damp
hollows in the sand dunes the flowers are small 3-petalled flowers on a
short stem. I've not seen this one in the nursery environment.I have seen
the L. grandiflora aka NZ satin flower.
Hope this makes things clearer for you
For those growing L.ixiodes (steve marak) mine are planted in conditions
ranging from semi shade to full sun light. The only difference in plants is
the colouring it gets more orangie in full sun. I have them planted in
bark. The drainage with these is not as critical as iris, they will
tolerate "wet" feet. Our temperature here goes dowm to minus 5 at night in
the winter and over the summer we get to 30 degrees our the summer. They
multiply rapidly here and I divided them every year (give them away to
friends) They are very hardy & seem to thrive on neglect at least mine do.
Unlike bearded irirs these ones don't die back over winter at all they just
keep growing.
Well just send any Questions about anything that I haven't covered fully enough
Have A Nice Day
sonya
mcsmudh@wave.co.nz
