Oncos 2013

[Maggi Young]

A fine selection of quality "lampshades" there, Pat.

[krisderaeymaeker]

A few of the aril species hybrids flowering today.
Local Mediterranean Garden Club members coming tomorrow afternoon to visit so they will have quite a few aril species hybrids in flower.

Very nice flowers Pat . "The  Local Mediterranean Garden Club " , that seems very interesting ! Here the mediterranean weather seems to leave us . After a hot and dry july and august everything gets back to normal ......   

[arillady]

Kris the visit of the Mediterranean Garden club members was blessed with lovely weather and plenty of arils and other plants that have to survive our long hot summers. Most members had never seen arils in person so that was a thrill for them. The 'river' in the front of the house was bubbling along over the rocks, grass was green and the sun was shining - what more could you want?
A few arils taken today:
PT9842 x 3 photos - all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!
a view over some of the patches
PT0402
(I like it when the message comes up that I can't add anymore photos)

[Peterwg]

Well done Pat, I am perpetually amazed at your plants.   Even more impressive is the large number of other blooms that may be glimpsed in the backgrounds.
Here is a more modest contribution - three seedlings from old John Holden seed cultured in 2011 - I guess the seed were 25 years old when cultured.   They were listed as HT-43 x samariae, up to 5 large blooms on almost three-year old plants.   They made a spectacular show and are a credit to John Holden's breeding skill.   

[arillady]

Beautiful blooms Peter. I do love the samariae look that comes in some of the hybrids here over the years as most of Shahak's 'various choice hybrids' had samaraie or lortetii in them.
I will reduce some of the blooms photographed the last couple of days and post in a while.  Ideal weather for pollinating - the best year so far!

[arillady]

PT0416 maybe - this has lovely globular form with accentuated lines
PT0823 - good light brown dotting to give a brown effect from afar
PY0434 striking red thumb print
PT0442 before and after opening - yellow background and purple dotting and veins in lines

[ashley]

Stunning flowers Pat, with such wonderful veining

[arillady]

Thanks Ashley.
A few photos from this afternoon.
I crossed PT0464 with PT0416 to keep the lovely form of these two.
Also PT0421 with PT0330 as they had similar form.
PT0426 has huge flowers on a stocky plant - it has to be nearly the largest bloom I grow.
Too much cold and rain has made the leaves like this. 27C tomorrow for a very early heated day.

[fermi de Sousa]

Peter and Pat,
your onco season is way ahead of mine; this is the first bloom - one of Pat's :PT 0317, I. hermona x ?, taken this morning as I raced off to work!
cheers
fermi

[Peterwg]

Very nice, Fermi!   Iris hermona seems to produce many flowers like this - large, showy, long style arms with large crests - and huge anthers absolutely crusted with pollen!   I'm glad your season has started, mine is almost finished - much too hot too early in the year - a week of hot weather has compressed the season into only a few days!

[arillady]

Fermi you have been having cooler weather and Peter has had so much warmer days except for the high 20s here last week.
I should have put an open day notice in the local paper last week for today but missed my opportunity. Peak bloom was this week. At least I am pretty sure there are quite a few pods forming.

[fermi de Sousa]

The second Onco is also one of pat's - Iris kirkwoodiae x Iris atropurpurea
cheers
fermi

[arillady]

Glad you are getting some blooms Fermi.
Yesterday we had terrible drying winds that really knocked the oncos around and down. A few left standing tall but only a couple of decent blooms to photograph today- photos later. You must have received the wind too Fermi as John N at Yarra Glen got it too.

[Peterwg]

Really, really nice blooms Fermi.   It is only the middle of September and many of my plants are showing that they want to go dormant.  Among them have been two very interesting Iris hermona.   They were not quite what I was expecting, but still nice!

[Peterwg]

The weather in Sydney has been very unseasonal this year  - in mid winter we had huge rainfall - more than 12 inches (300mm) in ten days and then nothing for the next seven weeks.   To top it off, the days have been above average temperatures climaxing in 7 of last ten days have been over 30C- ten degrees above average for this time of year!   Many days have also had 60 - 100 Km/h winds.   The irises have been very confused - most rushed into bloom, only to be blown to bits by the winds. 

Many years ago I received some seed of I. kirkwoodii x Herb's susianus (Herb was the late Herb McKusick from the Aril Society International).   This year, many of the plants bloomed, so I show a selection of the blooms.   The range of variation was surprising to me, bearing in mind what I thought to be the closeness of the cross.   Here are five of the seedlings which flowered this year which seem to span the range of variation.