Syntax for cultivar designations

I think Jim Murphy's idea is better than Dennis Hager's - that is, use all 
caps for registered siberian cultivars.  Dennis is correct that in the 
perennial plant world named cultivars are listed by genus and species 
followed by single quotes around the name without all caps.  However, irises 
are more complicated because they have an official registration process.  
This becomes especially important with species iris because there are many 
cultivars with names which have never been registered since registration is a 
more recent phenomenon for species.  The convention is to put the registered 
cultivars in all caps and the unregistered cultivars in single quotes (not 
all caps).  So I. cristata POWDER BLUE GIANT (Norris '97), but I. cristata 
'Abbey's Violet'.   There are not as many siberians that are unregistered, 
but there are some.  For example, 'Corey's Pink'  is listed in the Siberian 
Checklist, but is not registered.  In the checklist you will notice that 
lower case is used for this and all caps for registered siberians.  It helps 
to make communication clearer.

As long as this subject has come up, I would like to mention one of my pet 
peeves, which is seeing Siberian Irises listed in nursery catalogs as I. 
sibirica CORONATION ANTHEM (or worse I. siberica CORONATION ANTHEM).  There 
are two species from which modern Siberians are derived - I. sibirica and I. 
sanguinea.  And nowadays there is a third potentially in the mix, I. 
typhifolia.  Calling Siberian Irises I. sibirica is just wrong.  It is like 
calling TB's I. germanica or SDB's I. pumila.  It may be easy, but it is just 
wrong.  Some plants cannot be listed by a genus and species and Siberians are 
a good example.  Some plants are given hybrid designations, such as X robusta 
for I. versicolor X I. virginica.  But I do not think any such designation 
has been made for Siberians.  I'm not sure who can make these decisions, but 
I think it is "the taxonomists", whoever they are, and they do not seem to be 
interested.  

Climbing off my soap box, 
Jan Sacks in Massachusetts where spring is coming on very quickly.

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