Re: test gardens
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: test gardens
  • From: M* B* <a*@orange.fr>
  • Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:53:59 +0200
Hello. . . 

Sorry for this somewhat belated reply (my garden beckons and the cleanup after the bloom season urgently needs to be done) and also if this gets to seem like beating the subject into the ground, my apologies.  

it is the following remark made by Paul earlier on that prompted my feeling that he *might* be suggesting that trialling be used as a prerequisite to registration:  

> "A rethink on how Irises are Registered might be in order.  Just simply knowing the parentage is enough (many don't even have that) and growing enough stock to sell probably should not be the only reasons to Register one.  And we are back to the topic of Trial Gardens.... and actually using them for that purpose."

Apparently not.

I have absolutely no objection to test gardens and trialling as long as they remain a hybridizer's tool to help them decide what plants might eventually be worthy of registration and then perhaps introduction.  However, such decisions should remain with the hybridizer.  It should be remembered that, until an iris is actually offered for sale (i.e. introduced), it remains a seedling:   even if registered, it is *still* a seedling albeit a named one.  Sure, perhaps this takes up a little bit of space in the R&I, but is it really a problem that people sometimes register plants that don't end up commercialised?    

I regularly send plants out to both the Munich and Florence international iris competitions, though I do find that it's more useful to me to send my plants to Munich since they offer an point evaluation after both two years and three years growth.  I feel that Florence is more of a lottery, though perhaps useful in the sense that it is a different climate both from Munich and my own garden (central France).  I haven't yet participated in the trials held in Great Britain, though I will be able to now that I'm a member of the BIS, so that will be still another climate to test under.  I'm pleased to be able to say that one of my plants actually won the gold medal at Munich last year for the second year of judging.  Now, here is a case where the actual decision to name a plant or not isn't quite the hybridizer's decision because the competition rules stipulate that those plants placing in the top three must then be registered!  It may never be marketed though, this hardy iris!  Possibly it deserves to be, but it's. . . a white self and, as someone pointed out earlier on speaking of "beautiful pink irises that look like hundreds of other beautiful pink irises", does the iris world need another white self?  But I digress. . . 

There's nothing wrong with trialling; it's just another tool and, as long as one keeps in mind the caprices the weather is capable of and which could influence the performance of the plants, something to be taken advantage of and used to test seedlings.  

All the best,

Michele Bersillon  

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