Bob Nold wrote, "I was told that some of the oncos, like Iris paradoxa, grow in soils with quite a bit of organic matter in the wild, but here they get “sandy loam”, a purchased soil with no organic matter in it. " I haven't seen all the onco species in the wild, but have seen a number of them, and some of their soils didn't look very organic to me. A photo of Iris paradoxa will appear with a little article I wrote for the next Bulb Garden newsletter, and I hope it shows the substrate, because it was on the very top of a rocky hill in what looked like pure mineral soil, and flowering like mad. On the same trip I saw two subspecies of Iris iberica (ssp. lycotis and ssp. elegantissima), and lycotis was growing in grassland, but elegantissima atop a rocky knoll. Some other species grow in desert sands. We did visit an agricultural experiment station in Azerbaijan where various iris species (Onco and Bearded) were being grown in a field in what appeared to be clay soil, but they had been place on top of berms. We also saw Iris gatesii, an onco, growing in a garden in woodland, but the gardener told us it came from far up the nearby mountain. Here in Portland, Oregon, growing pure Oncocyclus species is very difficult because of the humid winters. Even under cover, the irises (which make leaf growth in fall) are afflicted by molds unless regularly sprayed, which I don't want to bother with. (An exception seems to be Iris kirkwoodii, which I grew from seed and it is doing well in the bulb house.) However, the Regeliocyclus hybrids, many of which have beautiful flowers, do much better here. I've recently moved divisions of some of them outdoors. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/