New Irises

Second makj's statement

Thank you everyone. I will spend my weekend checking out these sites and making my wish lists.

I have been looking over all the possible Blyth irises for the last few days and I find myself wondering how to judge the quality of an iris in a catalog. I am sure there is some of it we can't tell from a catalog, but what can we tell?
I quote Margiempv's post of Oct. 26:

1.) uniqueness. Sometimes that means a.) color, or b.) patterns, or c) a recognition of what new colors or patterns can arrive from what is already there, Next I look at the 2.) Form. without a good form the flower itself loses so much. Besides that it will have the tendency to pass that bad form it's offspring. Wide open standards is not attractive to many iris growers or judges.

I am not an iris judge and I expect that one learns all this in judging school, but in the mean while:

I understand what uniqueness and color mean, but what do you mean by patterns? Are certain patterns good, or are we looking for new patterns? Can you give an example -- not just from Blyth's irises, but anyone's will do.

Form -- what constitutes good form. I have heard about wide open standards not being good. Can they be too closed? Are there other standards for form?

If anyone can answer the above questions, it would help me to chose new cultivars for my garden. Or is there a book I can read that goes into detail on all this?

What is the meaning of "show stalks"? Does that mean tall? or configured in a certain way?

Anything, any of you can pass on to me would be most helpful.

This message was edited Dec 12, 2007 10:50 PM

" show stalks" usually means tall & many buds, especially open at once. There is a difference of opinion on the number of buds which should be open--those who wish to see many open buds on the show bench and others who prefer a slower sequence of opening in the garden. Some plants have both, the others which may have two or more open together and other plants which open buds one by one. In either case the flowers should not interfere with each other.

Form is sort of in the eye of the beholder. Standards may be open as long as they are strongly held open and don't flop backwards. One Blyth SDB, 'Hey Hey' is a light violet on white plicata with bright pink style arms . Certainly we like to see the center of the flower, but the standards don't flop. Some people only like domed standards, it's all personal preference. Catalog pictures give more information on the flower that on # of buds (unless included in description) than on plant habits, or foliage. If you know someone who grows a variety, you can get that person's opinion.

Look at Margie's unique pastel plicata patterns. The combination of pastel & dotting especially between the lines is quite different.

Thanks so much! I have really been wondering about all this, especially the form of the standards.
Another term question -- substance -- does that mean the flower isn't so flimsy that it flops and tears easily? Or is there more to it than that. I know it is bad for flower stalks to fall over. Is there more to substance than that?

You have substance right. It is the strength of the petals. Sometimes wind can whirl the petals around, but still no tearing even if it looked flimsy to the eye, the substance is there. Then there is a flower like the AB Zwanenburg--it looks fine, but when it rains turns into wet Kleenex.