Reticulate Iris - 2015

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I ordered seeds of a tulip a few years ago and got this instead, Iris histrio, flowering in the garden now.

Pleasant mistake, Cyril !

[krisderaeymaeker]

I ordered seeds of a tulip a few years ago and got this instead, Iris histrio, flowering in the garden now.

Extremely beautiful Cyril , a mistake that is easy forgotten ..... 

[Alan McMurtrie]

I'll be at the RHS show in London Feb 20-21.

Some of my hybrids will be on display, and I'll be speaking at 12PM both days -- only ½ hour though   

John Amand will be taking a few to Dunblane on the 21st

These photos are intended to show off a few of my hybrids, but more importantly they show what I'm working on to promote them.  I'm having some 4x6 inch double sided "postcards" made up.  In many cases I used Photoshop to knockout the flowers, and then I've darkened the background so the flower stands out.  Would be nice to be able take pictures in a studio with a white or black background, but generally that isn't possible.

00-KN-5 and 00-KN-6 may possibly be on display.

(saw the note about 760 pixels wide)

[Maggi Young]

Lovely pix, Alan - and a very happy birthday to you! 
 

[ashley]

These are magnificent Alan; well done. 
Are they coming on the market then, and under what names?

[Hans A.]

Terrific Alan!!!

Here first of my favourites started - Iris pamphylica

[Cyril L]

Beautiful plants, Cyril - are those on the picture different clones?

Hans, they are all different clones but look very uniform.  The seeds were sown about 6 years ago.

[Hans A.]

Thanks Cyril, they are really very uniform for being different clones! Very nice result!

[Hans A.]

Here a third clone with more purple flowers.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Breathtaking, Hans !

[Steve Garvie]

Nice images of this stunning iris Hans!!!

[Alan McMurtrie]

Smile: I posted 19 of these to my Facebook page i.e. 38 pictures in total.

That doesn't include the 4 that will be available for sure this year: White Caucasus, Spot On, Scent•sational, and Eye Catcher.  The Dutch grower also suggested he wanted to start small-scale sales of 00-HW-1 (10,000 bulbs); also not pictured (no name yet; yellow with lighter style arms; I'll find out more when I'm in Holland in March).

Stocks are in different stages of being built up.  A couple will be ready in a year or two.

I'm being told by the Dutch that I have too many hybrids -- that there's not enough room for them, particularly in the large-scale market, to which a large volume of bulbs are sold for forcing.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out.

What I need to do is generate excitement about my hybrids, and generate demand for them. This should then encourage the Dutch to introduce more of them.

Exporters and Retailers may look at Spot On and Scent•sational and say they are somewhat similar to the existing blues and purples -- which won't encourage the growers.

White Caucasus is very beautiful.  This year I'm thinking we should limit sales to 50,000 in order to continue building up the stock.   Eye Catcher will also be limited to about 10,000 bulbs so the stock can be built up further.

I see momentum starting to build this year, but it will take another year or two before things really get going.

The Catch-22 is you need stock in order to start sales.  What I faced with the original grower is he only wanted to build up stock of a couple.  He kept rejecting things like Orange Glow.  So now we're starting sales.  If people like my hybrids and want more we'd have nothing for them for quite a number of years.  Fortunately 10 years ago I "took out an insurance policy" by giving a middle man some of my hybrids.  I'm now working directly with the grower, and we do have things to follow the first four.  And, after a 1½ year legal battle I bought out the original grower's share of my hybrids.  I'm taking a significant risk, plus I've been making a big financial investment in tetraploids.

I've been trying to find some small-scale growers and have yet to be successful.

How all of this will pan out is very, very much up in the air.

I point all of this out so you get a sense of all of the difficulties I'm encountering.  Also Plant Breeder Rights are expensive.  There is at least one grower in Holland building up some of my hybrids that Janis sold...
 
This is / was suppose to be a fun hobby...

[Yann]

I know understand the sense of your last email Alan.

[Cyril L]

Here first of my favourites started - Iris pamphylica

Here a third clone with more purple flowers.

Fantastic Hans.  It is my favourite reticulate iris.  My I. pamphylica is a few weeks off flowering.  Last year they flowered mid March.

[ian mcenery]

Here first of my favourites started - Iris pamphylica

Wonderful plant and photo  Hans. Hopefully mine will be in  flower soon