Please Educate Me!

I'm tooling around on Blue J right now thanks to your recommendations! Since I'm ignorant about a lot of things still, would one of you be willing to tell me about the following: space agers, ruffles/lace, medians, aril bred, border bearded, intermediate bearded, small dwarf bearded, and tall bearded. I know what some of them are but don't know what defines them as such. For example, I know what Siberian iris are but don't know what makes them a Siberian iris. I know this is asking a lot, but I really appreciate the help!

Warm regards,
Susie

I have more questions... In the description, they use s, f, and b. Am I right that the "s" is the top of the flower, the "f" is the fall which is the bottom petal, the "b" is the beard or "fuzzy" part that comes out on the falls, and I have no clue what the aster is. Thanks!

I'd like a link to a good description of the flower parts too.

Susie, this link will answer a lot of your questions:

http://www.irises.org/classification.htm

You are correct about S (standard=upper three petals), F (fall=lower three petals), and B (beard=fuzzy part in the upper center of each fall).

I don't know what the aster is, either. Where did you see that term?

Spage Age irises are bearded irises with appendages on the beards. It is an unstable gene that does not necessarily consistently produce the same effect on all beards even on the same flower. Beard appendages can take the form of horns, spoons, or flounces.

Ruffles refer to the ruffling along the edges of the petals. Lace refers to ... hmm, how do I describe this ... very fine tatters along the edges of the petals.

Laurie

space agers, = have attachments to beards http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/130578/
ruffles/lace, = Ruffles just as on a skirt waves in falls and standards Lace - tips of standards usually can be on falls even style arms look was if lace has been crochet on Decadence has an abundance of both http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/93360/
medians, = include border bearded (BB) ( which is a short tall bearded), intermediate bearded (IB) ( which is a cross between a dwarf and a tall bearded) and also MTB - Miniature tall bearded Same height as BB and IB, small flowers and SDBs are just that dwarfs < 16"
small dwarf bearded, = Miniature Dwarf dwarfs that are less than 9"
and tall bearded are bearded iris greater than 27.5" All the above are bearded iris

aril bred, also a bearded iris but developed from either Regelia or Oncocyclus stock which are native to the middle east Both types are in this thread
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/719941/

Siberian iris are beardless iris developed from species Sibircae http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/107908/

http://www.pilmore.com/PIGKNOW.html

Thanks for helping me out! Some of it is as clear as mud (i.e.- "short tall bearded") but I'm going to the links to get the visuals.

BTW, the term "aster" was found on Blue J somewhere. I'll try to find it and post the link. There's a lot of terminology that is somewhat daunting to the beginner!

Susie

The classification name, Miniature Tall Bearded (MTB), can be pretty confusing, but the irises themselves are quite distinctive. Their flowers are miniaturized (about the same size as Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB)), but they have taller bloomstalks. MTBs are also referred to as "table irises" because they are popular in cut flower arrangements.

The information at the link I posted in my first response above will clarify all of this for you.

I suspect the term "aster" you found on Blue J's site was actually a misspelling of the word "anther". The anther is the pollen bearing part of the iris bloom.

Mitt was nice enough (along with the rest of you!) to send me the following info:

________________________________________________________

Let's see.....Space age = horns, spoons, or flounces

Ruffles and lace. theold irises were very plain looking. the modern or newer ones you'll notice the edges are curled and this is where the term ruffles and lace comes from.

Median are bearded irises that are shorter then the tall bearded ones.

Arilbreds are a hybrid. they're a cross with the bearded and the arils.

Arils are desert irises!

Tall bearded are irises that have stalks over 27"

Miniature Dwarf Bearded (MDB) stalks only reaching 8"

Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB)
stalks are 8" to 16"

Intermediate Bearded (IB) stalks are 16" to 27 1/2"

Border Bearded (BB) 16 to 27 1/2

Miniature Tall Bearded (MTB) stalks are 16" to 27 1/2

Rebloomers are irises that bloom more then once a year.

When you have the time for some studying, Tazzy put together a really good thread about different kinds of iris. I found it very helpful when I was trying to sort out the different types.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/480539/