■(Spx)Iris × norrisii (L.W.Lenz) C.Whitehouse, Hanburyana 5: 67 (2011).

Named after Sam Norris who made the first crosses with Iris dichotoma and Iris domestica (then called Belamcanda chinensis) See below:

• * References
• * Synonyms
• * Variations
• * Cultivation

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References:

× Pardancanda norrisii L.W.Lenz, Aliso 7: 407 (1972).
Iris × norrisii (L.W.Lenz) C.Whitehouse, Hanburyana 5: 67 (2011).
SIGNA p.106, 1970 I. DICHOTOMA X THE BLACKBERRY LILY Samuel N. Norris I. would like to report to the members of the S. I. S. G. ·a successful attempt to cross I. dichotoma with the Blackberry Lily. The plants used in the cross were the Shilka Iris , from Zilke's Nursery and Mr. Rex Pearce's "Avalon" Hybrids from Park's. Mr. Pearce wrote me back in 1961 that the Avalon hybrids are a cross between Belamcanda Chinensis and Belamcanda flabellata. In 1967, using I. dichotoma as the pod parent, I had twelve well filled seed pods from the cross. Also, as this was my last plant of l. dichotoma, I selfed another twelve blooms, but none of them took. As I had very little hope of the seed sprouting, I planted them all (about 500) in one 30" row. To my surprise, close to half of them sprouted three weeks later. They where well up by September, so I transplanted them into boxes and brought them into the house for the winter where they could be grown under fluorescent lights. They grew well and by March of 1968 four of the largest were in bloom. I lined them out in April, and had constant bloom from mid-July till frost, with many of them putting up new fans and reblooming. The plants are a very robust, larger than life version of I. dichotoma, that stay green until well into the fall. There is a gene for dwarfism from B. flabellata that is completely recessive when crossed to I. dichotoma. All of the F1 plants were of uniform size, but there are signs of segregation in the F2 generation. The blooms are all various shades of purple, from very light to very dark. Most of them carry the spot pattern from dichotoma. The petals and sepals are flat, with the largest bloom just filling in a three inch circle. The style arm is much abbreviated, and does not extend past the stigmatic lip. The style arms are held upright as in the Blackberry Lily, and are grown together for about one- third of their length. The plants all bloomed between 10:00 and 12: 00 o'clock (EDT) and remained in bloom until 7:00 or 8:00 o' clock in the evening. The majority of the plants produced pollen, but as the stigmas were not receptive for sometime after the pollen was mature, there were very few bee pods. Most of the plants would set seed when they were hand pollinated~ Quite a few of the plants also produced proliferations. These F1 plants will also cross with the Blackberry Lily although the seed will not germinate when the Blackberry Lily is the Pod parent. I don't know if they will cross with I. dichotorna, as my only plant did not survive. I have about 150 F2 plants under fluorescent light now, six of which have already bloomed. As is to be expected, there is a wide variation in the bloom. I had one yellow with a faint wash of purple over it. None of the plants have bloomed late however, and all of the style arms have been the same as the F1 plants. This cross brings a question to mind. Will dichotoma lose its status as an iris, or will the Blackberry Lily be classified as an iris? There are bound to be some questions arising from a fertile, inter breeding hybrid between the genera. I am now looking forward to what the summer will have in store for me.

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Variations Further generation hybrids

'Ai Hua', 'Aurural Sail., 'Azure Pinwheel, 'Blazing Sunflower', Bountiful Blush', 'Bright Smile'. 'Butterfly Magic', 'Candy Lilies', 'Cherry Pie', 'Chic Leopard', 'Chocolate Knight', 'Colorful Stellfroid', 'Dancing Woman', 'Daybreak Sail' 'Dazzler Series', 'Fiery Rhapsody, 'Fire Leaf', 'Happy Yan Yan', 'Heart Of Darkness', 'Jungle Colors', 'Kiba Giants' 'Laced Lavender', 'Lost Bar', 'Mandarin Lady', 'Norrisii', 'Moonlit Hairpin', 'Orange Diamond', 'Pastel Parfait', 'Pink Leopard', 'Romantic Celebration', 'Rosy Brocade', 'Sangria', 'Seiya Hui', 'Sharp Shine', 'Sheng Ni', 'Shining Butterfly', 'Slight Smile', 'Sparkling Fire', 'Star Eyes','Spooky World', 'Spotted Dog Hui', 'Starlit Shell', 'Starry Bodhi', 'Summer Candy', 'Summer Snow', 'Sunset Tones'. 'Sweet Princess', 'Vanilla Frost', 'Wedding Dress', 'Wine And Yellow Roses'

See Gallery

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Cultivation

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