Planting seedlings

I found a large paper packet of seeds from 2010 BIS distribution. A complete mixture of things  but all looking dark and fine. Having had instruction on speeding up seedling growth a couple of weeks ago, I though I'd give it a go.

soaking seeds

Plastic bags purchased from IKEA - they're pretty red stripey bags, perlite from Homebase - not so pretty and jolly expensive, and a tray loaded with soaking seeds - 48 hours in the end.

teeny seeds 'relaxing' in the perlite

The idea is to soak the outer coat before easing it off - NOT as easy as it sounds, then pop the de-coated pale seeds into moist, not wet, perlite in a plastic bag, seal the bag and put that in the fridge for 6 weeks. Of course labelling is vital but as you can see mine smudged all over so fingers x'd it will be readable in 6 weeks.

hydrator bound bags of seeds

Follow that by planting them in compost and leaving on a warm windowsill from xmas to actual spring when they are ready to go outside and into the ground - in theory.

Basically it fools the seed into thinking it's had winter (vernalisation in the fridge time!) and that spring is  nice and warm/wet. Then there is a really LOOOOOONG summer (from planting to the end of real summer). Plants can apparently flower in 15-18 months with this method, which is great considering normal process is 2-3 years to flowering!



My hydrator is full of red stripey plastic bags full of vermiculite and tiny pale seeds.

Final Autumn plantings

We've had an unseasonably warm October in the UK, which is all to the good for autumnal plantings. Still able to get their roots down into the earth and do a spot of growing and bedding in before winter set in and there is a pause for 'plantlike' hibernation.

Iris are divided from late July through  September with most nurseries sending out their final batches of orders in early October.

Our last arrivals made it here last week and have been sitting about waiting to go in, tough stuff these rhizomes!

The earth is dug over and weed free (or is that simply wishful thinking on my part?) and in they went.

Red Orchid, Spy and Tom Tit in the mTB beds along with 5 potentially 'new' plants from Welch's Reward seed last year. The WR plants are hefty little things, being smacked about by the 2 resident squirrels at home so they will do better in ground at the lottie where foxes keep pestilential rodents at bay!

Also in the ground is the gifted IB/BB (he couldn't recall what it had been registered as) 'Overcoming Love' from Gary Middleton.

The Medway Valley seedlings are in pots and in the cold frame, Squirrel proof cold frame I might add, where they will linger until next spring, they're much smaller than WR's seedlings, so a bit more caution at play.

Meeting the Hybridizers

Last week I went along with my partner 'in crime' Ali to meet Gary Middleton a fairly local, Iris hybridizer. We have heard lots of people talk about him, his name pops up on new Irises on a regular basis and as he lives all but down the road it seemed sensible to go and say hello at least.

He has been breeding Iris for about 109 years and has a wonderful selection of interesting plants. 4 were re-blooming on the day we met and we were amaze to find the 4, all pretty different - 1 pink, 1 yellow, 1 paprika and one a bit of each - were from the same seed pod!

He, like many in the Iris community, was generous with his knowledge and sharing so much info on the hows and why's not only of breeding but of registering and then getting plants into mainstream selling.

I am much more excited about the few seedlings I popped in last year no and can't wait for this years batch, about 6 trays, to be coming on. I may even try some hybridising myself next year though suspect some serious reading might be in order first.

We came away with a special treat of a newly named variety that is yet to be distributed, and it IS beautiful.

Re Blooming

SO Ben a Factor has rebloomed. Bearing in Mind it is 8th October and this plant was moved, and divided in August, I think it's quite the feat.

Some iris re-bloom true but ask the experts and they will tell you that it takes a lot out of the plant to do this, sometimes they will then not be able to flower the following year or it simply weakens the plant thus making it susceptible to disease and less able to recover from predators.

Ben a Factor is not actually listed as a re bloomer, nor has it been fed or pushed in anyway. Remarkable, all I can think is that it thought spring was here during our warm October spell and quickly got a flower spike up, it is one of the earlier ones.

The single flower is not one of the best, the colours are a bit muddy and it's only 1 flower, usually 5-7 on each spike but nevertheless a flower.

We will be watching that plant carefully for the coming year.

New additions

As ever there are some last minute additions to the collection. Beeches Nursery in Cambridgeshire saved their last 2 'Carolyn Rose'  MTB's for us and whilst there I acquired 5 other SDB'd and one seemingly untraceable MTB called 'Clair Louise' though I am having some difficulty locating it in the RHS plant Finder and indeed in any of my Iris sources, so we will have to wait and see what emerges when it flowers and perhaps more will be come apparent then.

'Carolyn Rose' from Beeches Nursery

Claire Austin Hardy Plants has a great re-vamped website and two 'New to Us' MTB's 'Red Orchid'

'Red Orchid' from Clair e Austin Hardy Plants in Shropshire

Spy from Claire Austin Hardy Plants

and 'Spy'.


I am hoping they arrive by the end of October and that will take our total count to 54 - excluding Clair Louise!

As an aside I compiled a wider list of all MTB's listed for sale in both the USA and the UK and have a 'STILL TO GET' list of 194 ..... ho hum I though the 54 we have was quite a good number!

British Iris Society Lecture series

The collection is now split into two locations, for safety and for management reasons. Everything is well settled in and growing on in the last of the summer so we took the opportunity to head to RHS Wisely and listen to a talk by Thomas Tamberg THE siberian Iris breeder, we gathered.

The talk series are in memory of Bryan Dodsworth  the noted Iris breeder. Bryan's son spoke at length about his fathers life and interests and it was quite some time before Irises were even mentioned! An accomplished man indeed. It was also interesting to hear that his collection is also split between The Old Rectory at East Bridgford and the Norfolk home of his son.

Inspired to grow Iris after a visit to Kew Gardens  he went on to pursue a passion for perfecting and improving upon the standard forms of the period. And very few made the Bryan Dodsworth grade and became registered varieties, though 12 of them won the prestigious Dykes medal!

Dr. Thomas Tamberg showed a breathtaking array of plants he had hybridised over many years and talked us through his methods for manipulating nature to produce plants that do what he wants. Thought this sounds glib one of his final pieces showed an Iris that in nature is  a diploid, and thus sterile, he had a laboratory breed from the diploid, adjust the genetic structure, to make it a triploid and so fertile and grew from it a visual clone Extraordinary!


I must admit to being quite bamboozled as the discussion deepened into the genetic break down of various species and how they would, or would not, be able to mix with one another, the number of DNA pairs seeming to be crucial a basic grounding in genetics would have been very useful and I am resolved to make extend my studies in the coming year.


There was discussion on how Colchizine, a derivative of the Colchicum species, can be used to make a variety fertile if it is inherently sterile. Though that said it sounded a very long and complicated process and one undertaken only by the most serious of hybridisers.


Interesting to hear how certain colours are rarer in certain species, light blues and yellows are not common in Siberica's apparently. 

Sitting in front of us was Olga Wells, we have heard so much about her and her interest in MTB breeding, so it was a relief to hear from her that she is not quite so scientific about her breeding program but more intuitive. So there is hope for us yet, and a great deal more to learn in the process.


Dr Tamberg left the group with the fascinating statement that there are many more Hybrid groupings to be discovered!

Surplus

The surplus was in the end quite shocking to behold, in fact I am still potting up the remains of it!

The exciting thing is that we have also sold some of the rhizomes to enthusiasts and a nursery. I didn't really plan on selling on our stock, which was clear given the rush once we realised just how much we would have left over, but we have sold about 100 rhizomes, so about 25% of our extras.

Perhaps next year with some common sense marketing and preparedness we might be able to sell more like 75% which would be wonderful as it would obviously fund the purchase or new varieties (!) and also go towards the ongoing maintenance of the collection - be great if the collection 'wiped it's face' as the auctioneers say, even greater if it made a bit of profit :)

And if any iris nurseries out there are looking for someone to grow on stock for them...look no further!

The Process of Division

As we got towards the end of dividing nearly 700 plants there was quite a rhythm to the process and it became much faster. I wonder if the big Iris nurseries do this task by hand or if there is some machine that lifts the iris for them?. If is it by hand then my hats off to them for it is hard work and we only had small clumps of 38 varieties to work on!

Stage one is digging up the congested rhizome, this was one rhizome that's been in for 2 years. Tough growing conditions, drought and wind, so it has done well. The dead and diseased is removed first, that's leaves and rhizome,  then the soil to the roots knocked off as carefully as possible though by the end of a week of this you realise the roots are pretty robust and can take a fair old knock! As the 'solid knocking' happens the individual 'new' rhizomes emerge, growing into and onto of each other they can be quite the jigsaw to separate but it is satisfying to feel them 'tear' apart and the roots disentangle and the new rhizome is parted from the old. It helps that our soil is dry as dust at the moment!

Once divided the tidying continues, leaves are cut back to 3-6 inches and in a 'V' shape to allow water run off. The reduction of leaves reduces stress on the new plants root system while it establishes. Not everyone cuts the in a 'V' but mostly Iris nursery people seem to, so I am following that much more experienced crowd.

Though some of the rhizomes are a little woody some are producing nodules of new growth at a rate of knots. Oh So Cool had very little top growth but about 4-7 nodes on each new root, a slow starter perhaps but a bumper crop next year?

We keep records, increasingly, records of everything. I have turned into a nerd almost without noticing. It is required to some degree - Plant Heritage like lots of info on plants behaviour. But it is also the curiosity of which grows best?, what sort of rhizome it makes?, is it more or less like it's parent? how many are we likely to get in coming years?  And the more you work with them, take care of them, the more interested you become in how they grow. This year we numbered all the rhizomes. One or two got 'lost' last year and you have to wait for them, not only to flower but then there is the issue of identifying it if it's one of the similar varieties - I know there are very specific differences in each variety but trust me when I say, not every root produces a truly DIFFERENT plant, sometimes it's not so obvious!

PH require plant variety to be numbered, the source indicated and the year of acquisition stated. We also keep records of quantities and yield and who we have sold to (I told you, nerd) and of course details of the plant behaviour, growth, vigour, flowering dates, length of flowering, no. of flowers (you see, nerdy bordering on OCD), root vigour and volume, growing conditions....I will stop now as it's clear I am a bit obsessed!

Suffice to say gathering intel on the varieties gives me pleasure and it's useful to know which can handle really tough conditions an which turn up their toes in disgust.

Each row is labelled and each plant numbered. This year we're trialling rows or 4-5 rhizomes instead of circular groups of 3. We are also noticing how 1 rhizome, when it has space to spread is MUCH more prolific than a few close together. Can it be as simple as the single has less competition for food, water and nutrients?

The soil minerals seem to have affected some of our rhizomes. Having thought this  a variety (Poker Chips) 'feature', upon digging out others it's clear that all the rhizomes in the area are purpley red to some degree and none of the others are remotely coloured. Wonder what the mineral is?

End of day 1, 1/3rd done 2/3rds to go.
MTB "Ben a Factor", a clear reason to continue

The BIG Divide

We had planned lsat week of July but in fact it turns out to be the first week of August that we are getting down to the first big divide of out MTB collection.

Iris need dividing on a fairly regular basis otherwise you end up with a large hole and lots of Iris round the outside, not attractive. MTB's are no different except they need dividing on a slightly more frequent basis. Once every two years is the recommended average. So this being our 2nd and a half year in the ground (they went in in March 2009) we need to split this summer.

38 varieties ready to go into newly spruced up, weed free (almost) allotment beds. We did 8 this morning - day jobs get in the way - and were rather surprised by the number of surplus we seem to have. not just a handful we can give to friends but 10-40, EXTRA, that's over and above the stock plants we need for the collection. YIKES they do grow fast. One of one suppliers told us we would need to think of an outlet to sell them once the collection was motoring and he was not wrong. By the time we finish we guesstimate 400 'spare' rhizomes...whoops.

Adding

We thought we had done our buying for the season but misjudged the timing of the RHS plantfinder release. After much debate we decided to locate the remaining MTB's not already in our collection of 44. We actually don't need them to meet the Plant Heritage requirement of 75% of those listed in the Plant Finder but we'd like to be holding them, and the other 48 listed but now not available. It's a slow process in the end.

My collection partner has done the lion's share of the phoning round this time which is a good thing as she is a real people person and finding out all sorts of useful information during her telephonic tour of iris suppliers.

One of the key things we discover, which in reality is not news but a confirmation, is that plants identified in the Plant Finder may or may not actually be for sale, grown by or even known by the nursery! claiming to stock it. Which makes one wonder about a) how the RHS go about updating the plant finder on a yearly basis? b) how nurseries check what they are listed for in the PF? c) whether anyone (RHS) ever does a spot check on the listings accuracy? d) why PH use it as a guide when it is apparently well known (several nurseries have pointed to the consistent inaccuracy of it) that it is not accurate.

With nurseries holding 000's of plants one can imagine it is quite an onerous task to update it, though some clearly do. I also imagine it is a good selling tool and know designers and landscapers use it to locate plants for clients and expect lots of individuals do the very same.

After the phone around we are 4 iris varieties closer to our target, slightly wiser about where to source from and a little surprised that this blog is being read!