SRGC Early Bulb display Dunblane 15.2.14

Lovely blog,When does the alpine house arrive ? must be top priority now.
Others will like to know the story associated with Sophie North.
B

What a fantastic blog, beautiful photos. So glad you had such a lovely and interesting visit. Lovely to see the little irises as I am growing some for the first time this year. Thank you.

glad you had a good day and some lovely plants there.
I will have do a blog on the South Wales AGS event at Caerleon soon too.
[I haven't worked out what I spent yet, don't know if I should :o) }

It was a great day (as usual) and it was good to meet Scotsgran and Scottish again. Mind, if you keep posting pictures like that again you will be fined the cost of a couple of books ;-)))).

You can tell from your blog what an enjoyable day you had, so many plants to admire and a fascinating talk as well.

Thank you for only taking a photo of the back of my head and putting Carole B., the Pres. in pole position - much appreciated! MG

Thanks for the lovely photos, Scotsgran. It looks like a very good day out. Such lovely bulbs - it does one good just to see them!

Everything takes a little longer these days Bjs. As Scottish was the one to discover the story from the lady who found this snowdrop growing in her garden she should be allowed to tell it. The Alpine House is fairly far down the list. Looking forward to catching up on all the photos and blogs Gee so I hope you have a photo on of your iris. Sbg it would be best to let how much you spent stay between you and the sellers lol. I only show prices which were not easy to remove. I'm looking forward to seeing your photos taken in Wales. Sorry Bulba as you know I'm all spent up. I had the embarrassing problem of having to search a bit for the last of my pennies to buy my raffle tickets. We had a brilliant day Stroller. I have not mentioned the hepatica talk in the afternoon but it was equally interesting. You're welcome Mg but I think I'm in the doghouse with Bulba. I thought the lovely iris you for which you were awarded a preliminary certificate of commendation was beautiful. Could you or Bulba explain what it means please? I found my computer was unresponsive this am so I have added the certificate, minus the bit with your home address on, at the foot of the blog.

Thank you Mel, the perfume from the snowdrops is something you do not normally think about but I have my purchases here in the house beside me as I write and the scent is heavenly.

When a plant, or bulb, is put to Joint Rock for the first time if it is considered interesting enough it is awarded a 'Certificate of Preliminary Commendation'. It then needs to be put up to Joint Rock again for them to decide if it should be awarded an 'Award of Garden Merit' (AGM). So, fingers crossed the iris will get put up to Joint Rock again at next year's Early Bulbs in Dunblane.

Very interesting :)

Lovely day. Thank you for sharing it with us all.

Sharing lets me relive the experience Diane. Thank you for looking at it. Thank you MG. It is interesting to know how that coveted AGM is awarded. I take it you grew it from seed. Can you tell us more about this Iris reinne immaculee?

I'll get Bulba to reply… we didn't grow from seed, we were given a bulbul at a Discussion W/E and asked to grow on it is from from the Mike Northway collection.

Iris 'Reinne Immaculee'.
This is an old variety of bulbous iris that has all but died out in cultivation. There was a grower in Galloway, Mike Northway, who passed away a few years ago. One of our friends was given the reponsibility of sorting out and disposing of his plants and we bought a packet of small bulbs in 2010. These have been grown on to flower for the first time this year. Because they are all we have they have been kept in the cold greenhouse. When they are unpotted this year we will have two tasks: firstly to see if there are still large bulbs in the pot rather than them all breaking down into 'rice'; if so, one will be taken and planted in the garden to check that it is OK outside. The rest will be re-potted, hopefully to flower again next spring.
The potfull that Scotsgran photographed has been in flower for three weeks and still looks good. When fresh the flowers were a lovely bright blue.
Now, a question for the older GoYers - have any of you any knowledge of Iris Reinne Immaculee? I have searched through all of my old books and the internet but cannot find any reference to it. I would expect that it is a lady's name but I don't know. Remove one of the 'n's and the resultant words translate into 'Immaculate Queen' in French, which could be a description of the flowers.

I can already start to answer my own questions, thanks to Mg who uses a different search engine to me. She found a short item by the American Iris Society that tells us that this iris should just have the one 'n' in its name and that it is a variety of I. histriodes. It was selected and named by Walter Bloms Nursery (now Bloms Bulbs) in the late 1950's.

Lucky I didn't turn up, Scotsgran...there'd have been no scones leet for you. ;-)
I'm glad you had a great day and look forward to seeing the results of your hybridsation experiments.

The Libertia is a wonderful plant and I've grown it now for about 10yrs. as for orange seeds. mmmm not convinced they are showy enough to warrant growing them for the seed. it survived the really cold winters of 2010-2011.

I have not seen this one before Sgb and bought it because iris and lilies both seem to grow well in my garden. I think the seeds will prolong the interest for a short time. Mouldy OH is threatening to leave home if I don't stop feeding him onions lol. I'm quite interested in trying to increase the amount of flowers by dividing up the bulbs, Bjs showed us how to do it and his results in a series of blogs recently. Anne Wright rightly pointed out that care and a certain amount of skill is required before tackling the job hence my interest in cutting up onions. The hybridisation of plants is quite a different matter. I don't think I would have the patience to take a fine paintbrush to transfer pollen from one parent to the next. It is a very labour intensive way of producing plants with no guarantee that you will have a successful hybrid flowering at the end of the three year long process.

Sheila
The slicing of the snowdrop is an interesting experiment and singles appear easier than doubles however from the amateur's point of view natural increases with many forms will give as rapid as an increase in bulbs, I cut each bulb into eight sections (professionals do as many as thirty two slices) and that is altogether different.
If you say an average of two bulbils per slice and they all grow on ( about 90% of mine grew to the second year) you achieve fourteen flowering in three/four years.
That is possible with many in the open ground.
I am not trying to put you off doing it there is a sense of achievement seeing them flower, so go for it.
B

Give OH beans, along with the onions, then he can patent teargas, Scotsgran. ;-)
I've read B's blogs and faved them for future reference.
Am I correct in thinking there were only two?

I think perhaps you are right, and the name comes from "Reine Immaculee", Bulba, which is one of the French titles for Our Lady, (Immaculate Queen). There are schools with that name, and a religious order of nuns. Perhaps it was inspired by its beautiful blue colour.

Could well have been Melchisedec… will check with the person from whom we got the bulbul and see if he has any idea.

I like the idea of being inspired by the blue colour, M, it could well be.

I'm late in coming to this - having just finished faffing about with my pictures. There is little point in duplicating what you've already put together Scotsgran.
I am looking forward to telling the story of the Snowdrop. I'll get started on that.

Bulba - I too was looking for the info on your Iris and came up with the same info that your good lady found. I got a great close up of the flowers - Scotsgran if you want a copy to add to the blog let me know.

I have to admit that the talk by Anne Wright made propagating through chip/twin scaling made it all a bit more clearer too me. I think the fact that she chose an onion to explain was something I could get my head around.

Thanks for beating me too putting a blog together Scotsgran ;)

Scottish Anne's talk is the firs time I've really understood chipping and twin scaling, not sure I'll be trying it though - I'll probably leave to Bulba :)

Well I certainly won't be trying it on the one I bought MG! Suffice to say it was a lot more than I expected to pay.
I do wonder though if by the time I bought everything I needed, I'd be just as well buy an actual plant.

Remember Anne is doing on a commerce scale… and for many different bulbs. Bulba says he is going to have a go and practiced with an onion I needed for dinner. Mind you he used a knife not a blade. I'm not sure that the level of sterility Anne needs is necessary for one bulb being chipped or twin scaled - we'll see.

A couple of times when we've been repotting Arisaemas there have been tubers that were partially rotten. I've removed the rotten part with a knife dusted with fungicide and planted in a separate pot, they survived and got on and grew.

You are probably right. I really should give it a go just so I can say.... I did it!

Chitting and twin scaling on a large scale is for commercial growers like Anne. For those of us with a great interest in plants then it is for mutiplying up 'special' bulbs. i will try to chit and twin scale some this summer, for experience, then I will feel confident to do it to the £25 + bulb in future!

Don't mention cost Bulba... Lol! Do report back to us on how it goes.

Hi Scotsgran Love your blog and glad you had a lovely time :0)

Thank you Cmsue. Scottish and I dipped our toes further into the world of Galanthophiles today and had a wonderful day out to the garden of Dr Evelyn Stevens who named the lovely snowdrop Sophie North. I did not get any photos, I forgot to charge my camera battery, but Scottish is much more organised and will be writing a blog soon. We are hoping to make another visit in May. Dr Stevens is the holder of the National Meconopsis Collection in Scotland. I'll be making sure my camera is ready for that visit.

The show will be featured in the first program of this years Beechgrove Garden. This will be broadcast on BBC2 Scotland at 7.30pm on Thursday 3 April and, for rUK on BBC2 on Sunday 6 April, time still to be confirmed.

Thank you Bulba. I'm looking forward to seeing their take on the show. They were enjoying their day out very much. It was a long day for them considering the editing etc would have had to be done later. Maxi blog lol.

I gather that for all their filming the piece will last a maximum of 6 minutes!