Re: OT: Naming of irises

Jan Clark <janclarx@hotmail.com> wrote:
<< Hi folks,
I am an oldy but haven't been around for some time.
I just got 
the idea in my head that I would like to write an article about the reasons 
behind naming and registering irises, and thought I would prompt some 
discussion here to help me expand my idea. >>


Hi, Jan!

It's good to see you back online!

In responding to your invitation to discuss the naming of irises, I am going to approach the issue from a somewhat different angle than has been taken so far. 

While all the discussion on this thread has been valuable and insightful, it remains the case that all the technical requirements of identification of individuals or clones and the tracking of ancestry can be accomplished quite efficiently by sequential codes consisting of numbers and/or letters. For example, every US citizen is required to have a Social Security Number and purebred animal registries track identity and pedigrees of individuals by assigning unique registration numbers to each one of them.

However, names have a significance beyond mere identification, because names are potent things that can evoke all sorts of associations in the human mind. As Commercial Sources Chairman for HIPS, I frequently receive requests from persons who are seeking irises that bear the names of family members or of localities that are meaningful to these individuals. Other persons assemble theme collections of irises with angelic names (or the opposite), with musical names, names of films, names of celebrities, patriotic names, etc.

The bottom line here is that iris names can add a whole extra dimension to the pleasure and satisfaction of growing irises in addition to that derived from the performance of the plants themselves. 

 

  

 

 



Jeff Walters
in northern Utah
(USDA Zone 4)
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
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