Re: Re: CULT:Vicki Ann

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
Free @Backup service!  Click here for your free trial of @Backup.  
@Backup is the most convenient way to securely protect and access
your files online.  Try it now and receive 300 MyPoints.
http://click.egroups.com/1/6348/6/_/496957/_/969824931/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

dwiris@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 9/24/00 4:32:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> nye@mail.fidalgo.net writes:
> 
> << One of our I. siberica nana alba plants is a large and
>  vigorous clump planted in Fall 1996. Its been moved and abused. It's now
>  about two feet in diameter and the foliage is exactly 26 inches high. It
>  was covered in beautiful white flowers this year. A second and smaller
>  clump from the same parent was disadvantaged in its location, so it only
>  reached about 16 inches high. >>
> 
> Dear Dallas:
> 
> Are you sure you have SIBIRICA NANA ALBA?  I have several clumps from two
> different sources and the foliage never exceeds 10 to 12 inches in height
> during the summer.  It is shorter than that while the 8 to 10 inch stems are
> blooming.
> 
> I only tried once, but I couldn't keep VICKI ANN alive.
> 
> Dorothy Willott in Northern Ohio
> Zone 5


Hi Dorothy,

Assuming it's true to name from the grower, this little beauty is I.
siberica nana alba. Naturally, we've had our occassional doubts. We
started out with this little guy expecting a nice little front border
clump placed behind some Sisyrinchium alba types. Little did we know
this nana was to become such a big baby indeed. Scratching our heads in
wonderment, we moved the clumps into more spacious locations and watched
the clumps grow even larger the following couple of years. The larger
clump seems to have maxed out in height, and the two foot wide clump
(three feet wide in the tops) needs to be divided. We've just planted a
new addition to the garden, the I. siberica nana alba (Perry 1912), to
see if there are any significant differences between the two plants
after a couple of years.

Our doubts about this plant being a nana alba are somewhat lessened by
the large sizes of the other Siberians. For example, BABY SISTER is
supposed to be this little six inch tall plant bred out of the nana
albas. We located it next to a path where its small size wouldn't get
lost. BABY SISTER proceed to grow somewhat larger than six inches. This
morning its tallest leaf is eighteen inches high above the ground. The
other leaves are held diagonally about fifteen inches above the ground.
So much for six inch tall Siberians around here.

CAESAR'S BROTHER also has an identification problem. The checklist says
it's supposed to be somewhere around 30 inches tall. Our plant labeled
as CAESAR'S BROTHER is growing to 60 inches tall. Our CAESAR'S BROTHER
is more like a CAESAR'S GIANT. This year we're adding two more CAESAR'S
BROTHER plants from different sources. We'll have to see how they grow
in the next couple of years and compare them.

CORONATION ANTHEM has a two year foliage height which is more normal.
It's supposed to be about 32 inches tall, and our plant is 36 inchs
tall. JEWELLED CROWN, however, is well beyond its nominal 24 inch
height. Our two year clump of JEWELLED CROWN has foliage 44 to 46 inches
tall, depending on how you measure the ground level.

We have to assume that our Siberian iris are most probably labeled
correctly and growing larger. Otherwise, we would have to explain how
all of the Siberians were mislabeled and growing substantially larger
than is normal for your average Sibeiran iris. We understand that
Siberian iris here in the Pacific Northwest do tend to grow larger than
their checklist standards. But, twenty-six inch tall nana iris are truly
unbelievable, until you see them.

We're tempted to try (TB) PURISSIMA, and see if it gets as tall as the
photo on the Website for the Historical Iris Preservation Society (HIPS)
<grin>.

Dallas Patterson
nye@fidalgo.net
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index