Thursday, April 7, 2011

Coming full circle: Iris orchoides blooms for the first time in my garden



Juno irises have enjoyed quite a vogue for some time in Britain: the Scottish and Alpine Garden Society journal's have scrumptious pictures of huge clumps in full bloom on show benches. You must go to considerable lengths to grow a juno iris in a pot. We have almost the same climate in Colorado that juno iris experience in Asia, so mine are just planted out in a dry garden. Fortunately, they seem to like it. I received this as a seedling several years ago from Beaver Creek greenhouses, and it has finally built up the stores to bloom.




I collected seed of several forms of this iris last autumn in Kazakhstan: It is an act of faith to grow these from seed, since they can take five or more years to bloom. It is worth the wait. I photographed this gem in several qualities of light: which one do you prefer?


6 comments:

  1. I prefer the dramatic sidelighting that burnishes the petals and makes the flower glow. (the composition is better too).
    Who was Juno? ;-)
    btw, I never knew there is such a diversity of Fritillaries. Everyone falls in love with F. meleagirs but can't grow it. Even F. pontica is short lived here but I don't know the reason.

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  2. I guess I agree about the pic. Juno was Jupiter's wife, as you must be aware. And a botanist applied it to the section (they raise it to generic status in Russia): so Juno orchioides would be Rodionenko's preference. Frits are easy if you site them right: some like it dry, some wet. F. pontica likes it moist.

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  3. Named originally by Leopold Trattinick- a very industrious botanist and artist- wrote and illustrated a monograph on Pelargoniums, named the genus Hosta, and said of Rafflesia, that the plant should be assigned to a special taxonomic category called vegetablische Verrucktheiten, or “vegetable craziness.”
    And who was Juno- just the wife of Jupiter,...
    ;-)
    (thanks for the advice on F. pontica- we planted it dry of course!)

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  4. As Woody Allen might say "DJew Know?": the variety of these wonderful little iris with dahlia roots is such that people are always confused about them: "D'jyou know the name of that one?"...eventually the name stuck apparently...another fractured explanation from your somewhat nutty friend.

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  5. Lame and Nutty! and we will come collect the Corydalis in late May. I can't believe you already have all those blooming trees- so far here it's only Siberian Elms.

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  6. You oughta come before that! Next weekend is rock garden sale: can't you bring something to sell? Our gardens are exploding. You can crash at my place...

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