Iris

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Thu, 04 May 2006 07:35:15 PDT
Dear John, Jim, and John,

Thanks for the responses to my questions. I think all irises are fair game 
and of interest to this audience. It's just taking us a long time to get 
them added to the wiki.

Jim (Waddick), we made a note about the changed name to Iris domestica on 
the Belamcanda page when you told us about it whenever that was. I am 
always so appreciative when people announce the information about the 
changes to our group and if I'm not too busy at the time make the changes 
on the wiki. I'm not sure we are always consistent on the wiki about these 
changes. Sometimes we just make a note on the old page and reference that 
page from the new name so we don't have to repeat everything and make the 
original page too long. This is the quickest way for us. When Jim McKenney 
added a picture of Iris dichotoma, he  named it that and explained it was 
sometimes included in Pardanthopsis and since we just had the one picture 
it didn't seem to be a high priority to make a page for Pardanthopsis with 
the information that it was now included in Iris. But we could do that I 
suppose. We had a private complaint from someone that our wiki was not 
always consistent, but Susan and I put hours in on it making changes and 
have decided that it will never be entirely consistent because it is a wiki 
and wikis are by nature group efforts and will reflect individual 
creativity. And we do want to have time to be in our gardens and have lives 
too.

Now I am confused about what to do with cultivar names. We have been using 
single quotation marks around names that appear to be cultivars. From Jim's 
post it sounds like unless they are registered they should be listed with " 
instead of ' around the names. This makes my head spin. Since we have no 
way of figuring out which names are registered for all the cultivars listed 
on the wiki I think in this case we are going to have to be consistent and 
just list them all the same. But I am very happy to have Jim's help in 
figuring out the correct cultivar names for the Iris selections and will 
write him privately when I have a question about them. I probably should 
figure out a way to obtain that list too.

I had a  suggestion to use the botanical sections for dividing Iris and 
then to describe them, but I think except for the Iris experts in our 
group, doing this would make those Iris section pages more technical than 
most people would find useful and even more important, I've already started 
using  the more familiar names and am not going to create new wiki pages 
and take off the old (eg. change Reticulated Irises to 
Hermodactyloides).  Describing how they are different and referring to the 
botanical names for the subgenus and the sections on the wiki pages I have 
already created I agree is a good idea. I'm still looking for a good way to 
break up the subgenus Iris (Bearded Irises).

Mary Sue

5/3/2006 -0400, you wrote:
>Mary Sue,
>
>Regarding the Iris cristata cultivar names - I tend to use
>what is attached to the plant when I receive it, unless it
>is clearly wrong.  However that obviously doesn't validate
>the name I have and use.  I suspect that White Angel
>probably should be Eco White Angel and have no reason to
>think Shenandoah Skies is not correct - none of which is
>definitive.  Regarding your organization of the bearded
>irises, and by extension, other irises, are you drawing
>the line for inclusion on the wiki anywhere in particular
>or are all irises fair game/of interest to this audience?
>
>I have just had a wonderful flowering of all three section
>Chinenses irises I grow (odesaensis, koreana and
>especially henryi).  Seed set on the latter is
>particularly exciting.  Also flowering is Iris imbricata,
>from two recent collections in Iran and S Armenia - this
>is another glorious bearded species.
>
>Thanks and all the best,
>
>John
>
>John T Lonsdale PhD
>407 Edgewood Drive,
>Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA
>
>Home: 610 594 9232
>Cell: 484 678 9856
>Fax: 801 327 1266
>
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>http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/
>
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