Reticulate Iris 2009

[Luc Gilgemyn]

A very nice one David !
Got it on my list of "wants" = "musts" for this year !

Good thing the mouse didn't get to the bulb of your kolpakowskiana Anthony ! When I look at the pricetag I've seen it at....
There's always next year 

[Anthony Darby]

A fine, healthy Oxalis you have there too. Pity the meeces don't dig and eat THOSE bulbs.

Oh but they do Lesley, and spread them about the plunge. I have even had the oxalis (Bermuda buttercup) grow up through a pot because the bulb was in the plunge directly below the drainage hole.

[Lesley Cox]

Oh but they do Lesley, and spread them about the plunge. I have even had the oxalis (Bermuda buttercup) grow up through a pot because the bulb was in the plunge directly below the drainage hole.

Oh hell!
You will have to teach the mice to eat EVERYTHING on their (oxalis) plates and not leave any to grow on elsewhere.

[Brian Ellis]

Edit by M: This and some related posts have been moved here from a "Winter Trip- (Angelesey Abbey) and Cambridge Botanics Vist" thread...http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3064.0

Many thanks for these pics Brian, allowing us all to look over your shoulder  

Interesting that the Cambridge Iris bakeriana differs markedly from others shown here on the Forum - rather like 'Cantab' in fact

Ashley I was most careful to take pictures of the labels as well as the Iris because of that, unfortunately it does not say anything about the acquisition on the label.

[Brian Ellis]

Interesting that the Cambridge Iris bakeriana differs markedly from others shown here on the Forum - rather like 'Cantab' in fact

Ashley I was most careful to take pictures of the labels as well as the Iris because of that, unfortunately it does not say anything about the acquisition on the label.

Hmmm - does anyone have a digipic of Cantab?  This one does not look like my slide from 15 years ago.  The two shown look very similar (look at the falls) and it may be that neither is correctly labelled

Tony I would not be surprised if it was mislabelled as we were a little surprised by the state of some of the other plants, however that was the label it had -one of those nice black square jobbies with white printing

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Referring to the earlier discussion about "Clairette" - this is what Leonid Bondarenko of http://www.litbulbgarden.com sells as Clairette.

http://www.litbulbgarden.com/home.php
''
My lovely variety with large flowers of I. bakeriana type.
''

[Lvandelft]

Luc, these are almost too beautiful.
What paint did you use?

[ashley]

Interesting that the Cambridge Iris bakeriana differs markedly from others shown here on the Forum - rather like 'Cantab' in fact

Ashley I was most careful to take pictures of the labels as well as the Iris because of that, unfortunately it does not say anything about the acquisition on the label.

Hmmm - does anyone have a digipic of Cantab?  This one does not look like my slide from 15 years ago.  The two shown look very similar (look at the falls) and it may be that neither is correctly labelled

Tony I would not be surprised if it was mislabelled as we were a little surprised by the state of some of the other plants, however that was the label it had -one of those nice black square jobbies with white printing

You might well be right Tony and Brian because neither plant at Cambridge Botanics fits descriptions on the Forum.

On the Old Forum John Forrest showed his I. bakeriana with 8-sided leaves (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/5457.html, about quarter-way down the page), as well as  ‘Cantab’ (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/6250.html#POST4360) that matches Lesley’s (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/16023.html#POST8856).  Luit may well have posted reference examples from the Connisseur Collection last year but unfortunately I can’t find them.  Nevertheless ‘Cantab’ seems to have pale falls & a yellow ridge (contrast the Cambridge plants).   

Rafa gives the description:  bakeriana Fos. Southern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran. 4-6" (10-15 cm). Standards and styles bluish lilac; falls white with deep blue tips, lines, and blotches. 2n=20 (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/139/24790.html#POST13083).  No mention of yellow here (again, contrast the Cambridge plants).  Other examples shown on that page have purple falls and lack yellow, like yours Tony (http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2862.120), but different to John’s with dark blue falls & yellow/orange ridge.  So evidently there are at least two distinct forms of bakeriana - or three if the Cambridge plants are also correct. 

Widespread mislabelling of reticulata cultivars & hybrids in the trade adds to confusion.  All lovely plants though

Maggi, before you are swept into that white-and-green vortex kindly tell me whether it’s possible to hyperlink words rather than use messy URLs?

[Lesley Cox]

That's a scrumptious bulb list, especially the irises and junos. A bit frustrating though, the download time for larger pictures.

[Anthony Darby]

Leonid's 'Clairette' is absolutetly fabulous.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Leonid's 'Clairette' is absolutetly fabulous.

Leave some for me when you send in your order Anthony... 

[tonyg]

On the Old Forum John Forrest showed his I. bakeriana with 8-sided leaves (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/5457.html, about quarter-way down the page), as well as  ‘Cantab’ (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/6250.html#POST4360) that matches Lesley’s (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/16023.html#POST8856).  Luit may well have posted reference examples from the Connisseur Collection last year but unfortunately I can’t find them.  Nevertheless ‘Cantab’ seems to have pale falls & a yellow ridge (contrast the Cambridge plants).   

Rafa gives the description:  bakeriana Fos. Southern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran. 4-6" (10-15 cm). Standards and styles bluish lilac; falls white with deep blue tips, lines, and blotches. 2n=20 (http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/139/24790.html#POST13083).  No mention of yellow here (again, contrast the Cambridge plants).  Other examples shown on that page have purple falls and lack yellow, like yours Tony (http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2862.120), but different to John’s with dark blue falls & yellow/orange ridge.  So evidently there are at least two distinct forms of bakeriana - or three if the Cambridge plants are also correct.

GOLD medal for you Ashley  
I had a feeling we'd been here before but I did not recall the details.  The Cantab is exactly as I remember it.  The I bakeriana looks a bit like the plant in Rix & Phillips and Johns comments about its (relative lack of) vigour are significant in distinguising it from the vigorous 'Clairette'

[David Nicholson]

Pics here from last year of my Cantab and Clairette. I contacted Alan McMurtrie about Iris bakeriana and will post his reply and picture later.

Maggi, would it make sense to add replies 26, 31, 42, and this one to the Reticulata Irises 2009 thread in order to keep all the information together? Don't want to cause you extra work.
edit by M : done, David!

[David Nicholson]

To see if I could further our discussion on Iris bakeriana or not I thought I would drop Alan McMurtrie an Email as he has probably forgotten more about Iris reticulatas than most of us will ever learn-here is his reply.

"Unfortunately my main pictures of bakeriana are slides.  Potentially I'll one day get a slide scanner and digitize 
the slides.

I collected bakeriana near Marden, Turkey in 1985.  It wasn't in bloom 
at the time but did subsequently bloom here.

A key identification to bakeriana is its eight sided leaves.  The 
eight sides are all equally spaced giving a nice octagon cross section.

I know 'Gordon' has sometimes been sold as bakeriana.  Its leaves may 
have eight ribs but the leaf cross-section is not octagon.  It's 
rectangular.

On my web site you can see pictures of a form of bakeriana that I got 
from Igor Minjariz (see the 'species - 2' page).  I refer to it as 
"bakeriana Igor."  It's not a named form; that's just my way of 
identifying one form from another.

The bakerianas I know don't have a coloured ridge stripe.

Of course one really needs to go into the wild and travel all around 
to truly see whether there is much variation in bakeriana.  Mathew's 
'The Iris' suggests there are possibly forms in Iran with yellow 
ridges.  The question though is are they really bakeriana?  I don't 
believe these plants currently exist in cultivation.  In truth 
cytological studies of the bulbs would need to be done.

There is a possibility that bakeriana is just a form of Iris 
reticulata (i.e. that eight sided leaves is just a minor variation in 
the big scheme of things)."


Here is the picture Alan referred to in his fifth paragraph.

[David Nicholson]

A few pictures today from my very disappointing bulb bed.

Iris reticulat 'Edward' which was 15 bulbs last year.
Iris reticulata 'Gordon' - 10 bulbs last year.
My patch of Iris danfordiae was ten bulbs last year, and having read the books (me that is, the bulbs obviously didn't!) I planted them very deep in order that they didn't break down into rice. £100 for all you spot