Dennis wrote, >I've tried Hermodactylus tuberosus from seed and from bulb. I've had no >luck with it whatsoever. I've stopped trying. > >I've never seen it bloom in real life. I think the photographs in books and >on the web are all fake. Hermodactylus is now called Iris tuberosa. It may be too tender for Dennis's garden in Cincinnati, Ohio. It does well for me in western Oregon, and I have grown it from both bulbs and seed. It sets seed in the bulb frame and has self-sown there. Some years ago I purchased three different color forms from Monocot Nursery and still have them, though they haven't increased a lot. One has a lovely blue-green hue in the flower. Typically the flowers are green-and-blackish. In rich, fresh soil it can become a very vigorous clump, but in the wild it is smaller and usually solitary. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA