Hi all, I have tried to grow Schizostylus here, and haad the cv. 'Big Mama' with a large pink flower for a while. It bloomed, although quite late. It mights still be there, but has not bloomed the last year or two. The species is planted in a different spot and is probably much drier as well as somewhat shaded -- at the east edge of a small grove of sumac trees. It has never bloomed. As for DNA, well, think about the tracking of disease-causing genes in human families. There are differences between genetic individuals within almost all species. While in the case of Schizostylus coccineus, all cultivars may be of the same species, in other plant groups they may not be. Clivias and Daylilies come to mind, for example. Moreover, in the case of clivias, Keith Hammett's co-workers in New Zealand can distinguish Belgian strain Clivia miniata from German strain C. miniata by DNA analysis. There is tremendous potential, actually for probably the first time ever for most plant genera, for identifying name-lost plants as old cvs now, if any reference DNA is available for the original cultivar. Is there any other species or hybrid in the genus Hesperantha that can survive in cold climates? Are there any other cultivars of H. coccinea that bloom earlier or are hardier than the species in cold climates? I'd like to try some more varieties of South African irids for their hardiness here in our cold, wet winters and hot, wet summer. Using DNA results as grounds to move a plant from one group to another seems to cause a lot of horticulturists a problem. To me it seems supremely logical. Since the DNA is the essence of a living organism, and indeed largely a record of its evolutionary history, it seems to me to be the best possible evidence for classification of a species. But then, I'm a biochemist, and neither a botanist nor a horticulturist. Regards, Jim Shields in central Indiana, where the snow is starting to melt as the sun has come out again At 03:05 PM 2/19/03 -0800, Mary Sue wrote: >Dear All, > >There hasn't been much response to Alan's Topic of the week, >Schizostylis/Hesperantha. >.................. > >I confess to knowing very little about how dna is used except that it >often leads to plants that I have finally learned to identify being >renamed but I am very intrigued with someone thinking they could tell the >difference between cultivars using this method. I guess I always assumed >that cultivars would all have the same dna as they would be the same species. > >Mary Sue ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. +1-317-896-3925 Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP