Jim Waddick wrote: “First, the white dichotoma is gorgeous, but I suspect it is an x norrisii from the larger size of the flower and all its parts and it seems to have a strong/heavier substance to the petals. A pity you lost it. It also reminds me of the x norrisii of old.” If Dennis has a good memory , there might be a simple resolution to this. The seeds of Iris dichotoma do not resemble those of the Iris x norrisii (at least I. x norrisii as I’ve known it). All the lots of seeds of I. x norrissii I’ve seen resemble blackberry lily seeds: shiny, black spheres. I realize that my understanding of this is based on an extremely small sample. So I’ll posit another question: are the seeds of I. x norrisii always shiny black spheres, or do they sometimes resemble those of the vesper iris parent? When Jim Waddick talks about the x norrisii of old, that prompts another question. Did those plants come from Norris (or an associate ) or did they come from commercial sources? What I’ve noticed is that run-of-the-mill commercial candy lilies seem to resemble the blackberry lily parent more than the vesper iris parent. Yet the candy lilies shown in the links Jim Waddick provided resemble the Iris dichotoma parent strongly. It’s to be expected that as a hybrid group is developed some of the future generations will show blended characteristics, and others will come to resemble one parent or the other more closely. Breeders selecting only for the bright colors of the blackberry lilies will likely end up with plants which overall resemble the blackberry lilies, while those selecting only for the subdued colors of the vesper iris will end up with plants resembling the vesper iris. If this is a problem for anyone, the simple solution is to raise your own plants from parents you like. These plants are quick and easy from seed. One other thing: surely, Jim, you were exaggerating when you wrote that the new hybrids can have five times as many flowers as Iris dichotoma. Using your numbers, that would mean that some of these plants produce up to 500 flowers per plant per season. I would like very much to have such a plant! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/