Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Iris => Topic started by: arillady on January 25, 2008, 05:30:15 AM
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I would like to introduce myself. I am currently the President of the Aril Society International. I became interested in arils in 1989 when I saw two photos in 'Bulbs' by Phillips and Rix, of Iris iberica ssp. elegantissima growing in its natural habitat. I was smitten by these beauties and so I joined the ASI, received seed from their seedbank and from a member in Israel and started growing them. Our climate appears to be similar in many ways to the lower altitude species and this has helped greatly in my continued success in growing arils and arilbreds. The ASI have a plant sale plus we introduced a seed exchange for members a few years ago which has proved highly successful.
I have grown 98% of my irises from seed. I am certainly not saying I have had success or a great germination rate over the years but I do have quite a large collection - mainly species crosses as I might not have another clone flowering at the same time. The arils appear to be self sterile. Marcus Harvey in Tasmania has also supplied a few rhizomes for those of us in Australia.
Pat Toolan
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Welcome to the Forum Pat, it's good to have someone with your skill and knowledge and I look forward to reading more about your plants. Although I love all Irises, given my maritime climate Arils would be a step too far. I enjoy looking at them and reading about them though.
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Hello, Pat and a very warm welcome to the Forum. A delight to have you... and by extension, your society, on board!
You originally opened this page in Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum > Member's Area (only viewable by registered forum members) > Member's Board.........
I will, however, move this topic to the main forum Iris pages, where everyone will be able to see it, not just registered Forum members.... this section: Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum > Specific Genera > Iris
main Iris page is here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?board=22.0
Looking forward to hearing more from you!
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Thanks Maggi and David for the warm welcome and help with the forum directions. I had thought I had sent a message when I first joined up but I guess it did not pass GO.
Even though I have been growing oncocyclus for nearly 20 years I do not claim to be any sort of expert - Mother Nature gives me much help. I just keep my fingers crossed each summer that we don't have a downpour that combined with heat cooks the rhizomes. It is always with a sense of delight and wonder that I watch the new leaves appearing in autumn and then sheer joy when the flowers form and open up. This is when you want to invite everyone over to see them.
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Pat,
Welcome. I used to be a member, but funds meant that I couldn't continue. Also frustrating to see adverts of the sale, knowing I couldn't access them. I. i. ssp. elegantissima was something that sparked me on arils as well, but after getting one from Marcus a couple of years ago I lost it!! (you probably heard the sobbing from all the way down there in South Aus) One of my holy grails, but I need to get back to basics with arils again I think before trying again. I just LOVe the pics of the flowers I have seen. Used to grow a few of the arilbreds beardeds etc quite successfully, but lost them over time with the changing climate and February drenching rainss we had a couple of years running. Good to have you here with us. 8)
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Wellcome Pat, here in SRGC society are many people interested in growing Oncos and Regelias I hope to learn from your experience in growing oncos.
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Bienvenue Pat.
I'm very interesting to read your post because I thought AIS was above all an american association, which can make problems to sell or exchange plants.
In France we are less than five persons to be really fond of oncocyclus, but if the AIS permits to obtain botanical species in seeds or rhizomes, I could be very interesting to become a member.
Hereafter Iris kirkwoodii in my garden ;)
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Oh my!! :o
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Bio, Splendid iris, i think as you about this society and want to join them in the same conditions you say
de la part de Medius !!!
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I recognized you Dominique ;).
Then, Ladyaril, may we contact you about details for AIS inscription ?
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Bio
What a magnificent I. kirkwoodii !! :o :o :o
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Biodiversite and dominique,
We have just appointed Gerhard Stickroth in Germany as our EU transshipper of rhizomes from our plant sale (to save on costs all round) and Lars Hoepfner in Denmark is the Seed Exchange Chair. We have members in Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada, NZ, UK, Japan, Austria, Latvia, Israel, Italy, Australia and FRANCE - so you can see it is not exclusively American. Yes you can get rhizomes and seeds - the species can be hard to find but we would love to welcome anyone to ASI as members.
Just contact our Treasurer/Membership Chair: Reita Jordan, 3500 Avenida Charada NW, Albuquerque. NM 87107, USA SJordan@unm.edu to join - $10US per year or $28US triennial - Yearbook, 3 Newsletters, Plant Sale, Seed Exchange are all benefits of membership, plus access to the arils!!!
I flowered Iris kirkwoodii for the first time this past season and it was a bit moth eaten so I will not post my photo after your magnificent photo.
Pat
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Hi Pat,
very nice to meet you here,
best wishes from Spain. :D
Biodiversite and dominique Pat is right and I think the number of species will rise in the seedexchange in Future - at the last seedexchange I received some seeds of very fine species.
Hans
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I'm agree with Hans, but I think it's necessary to increase the species to have different clones and produce as many seeds as possible, exchangening pollen and also plants.
Pat, I don't forget your last e-mail, I'll reply soon.
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Yes Rafa and Hans we need to increase the species by crossing clones of the same species - this is my prime consideration when pollinating but Rafa how would you save pollen to use at a later date and how would you send pollen by post? An ASI member has just received seed of Iris haynei and Iris lortetii from Israel which will be good to grow on. Please do not get caught by the ebay member offering arils - they are not correct.
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Hello Pat,
there should be no problem sending pollen by mail - if it is kept dry it can be used also after several weeks - dry pollen also can be freezed to use it the next season - if I remember well there exist old ASI articles about this theme.
@Rafa
In my opininion it is better to interchange seeds - just think about the variations you can find in Iris acutiloba ssp. lineolata or Iris kirkwoodii Iris kirkwoodiae Chaudhary - I would prefer not to cross the different forms.
Nice to hear about the seeds of I. haynei and I lortetii - hope they will become more common in future in cultivation.
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Hello Pat, a warm welcome and very nice to meet you here on the Forum, as there are so very few
gardeners here in Australia interested in growing arilbreds , let alone the pure Oncocyclus and Regelias
species.You will be much more successful in your dry and hot climate in South Australia, than I will be
here close to Melbourne ,in a cool temporate Rainforrest area. But by giving them special care I have
grown [and lost] over the last 35 or so years many species.I once managed to raise and flower in 12 months from seed I. iberica , received from the Tiflis Botanic Garden.But more often than not seed
will not germinate- but sometimes, if you keep your seedpots long enough ,after 4-8 or so years.
I always use the soaking in bleach method for seeds of Oncos and Junos.
The Regelia I. afghanica from a Paul Furse collection is still hanging on.
Thank you for the healthy and strong plant of I. camillae.
Otto.
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Hello Otto,
Is your Iris afghanica a fertile clone? I am growing two clones of Iris afghanica from Martyn Rix collection, but both are infertile. Maybe we can exchange pollen?
ALl the best,
Rafa.
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The people you meet when you least expect to!!
Hi Otto hope Iris camillae keeps on well. I have been covering my arils with more gravel lately to raise the amount of top gravel - with our days and nights starting to come in a bit cooler I wonder if I will see movement soon from the arils. Will check the ones I have dug and have in paper bags for any signs of growth.
And yes I agree that there is not many of us trying to grow arils and arilbreds - most of the local iris society want the biggest and the best tall bearded and will not look at species. Is an isolating pasttime but when you have friends and like minded people all over the world....... what more do you want?
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So Pat, you actually lift and dry the arils do you? All, or just some of them, and if so which and why? (if you don't mind me asking) I was heart broken when ibirica ssp elegantissima didn't make it, and have been loath to try any more of the arils since, but I adore the shape and colour of pretty much every arilbred I have seen, and any pics of the species etc. Would love to try them again, but didn't realise that they needed to be lifted and dried. Those which you have in gravel, do you cover them to stop any summer rain getting onto them?
Thanks for any info.
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Depending on the weather and where the arils are planted is whether they get dug or left in situ - this year I dug quite a few that were going backwards where they were with plans to replant them in a better prepared site and other arils which were in areas that if we had heavy rain would stay moist too long. I must remember to get the next load of gravel delivered to the top of the garden and not the bottom as, even though it is good exercise trying to push a wheelbarrow load of gravel up a fairly steep hillside, with many stops for deep breaths, it is far easier to just load and move across the hill. I do agree too that sand holds moisture too much and that is why I am using far more gravel than in the past and also moving further up the hillside. Some years, when it rains quite a bit the hillside oozes water further down the hill so newer planting beds are located toward the top where there is no chance of water collecting.
I prefer to leave the arils where they are as digging seems to retard flowering for the following year.
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Is your Iris afghanica a fertile clone? I am growing two clones of Iris afghanica from Martyn Rix collection, but both are infertile. Maybe we can exchange pollen?
ALL the best,
Rafa.
Hallo Rafa, unfortunately my old tired clone of I. afghanica is self sterile and does not flower every year-but if it does I would certainly be happy to send you pollen,
ciao, Otto
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Is your Iris afghanica a fertile clone? I am growing two clones of Iris afghanica from Martyn Rix collection, but both are infertile. Maybe we can exchange pollen?
ALL the best,
Rafa.
Hallo Rafa, unfortunately my old tired clone of I. afghanica is self sterile and does not flower every year-but if it does I would certainly be happy to send you pollen,
ciao, Otto
Thank you Otto,
I think the clones I grow will have flowers this year so I will send you pollen and maybe you can aplly it to your clones when blooming. You can keep the pollen dry in the fridge.