Editor’s Note: In
recent blogs, Bryce Williamson wrote how the first good pink plicata, April
Melody (Iris Stories: April Melody and Iris Stories: April Melody 2), expanded the range of colors in that
group. Today’s hybridizers have been combining plicata patterns with other tall
bearded iris patterns, taking plicata irises in new and exciting directions.
Keith Keppel here shares a peek at some these developments in his Salem,
Oregon, garden. Please remember, however, that these seedlings represent work
in progress and most will not make the cut to naming and introduction based on
plant growth or other factors.
By Keith Keppel
For the benefit of iris newbies, perhaps we should explain
"plicata". Plicata is a pattern with a white or carotene colored
(yellow, pink, orange) ground, the edges stitched, stippled, or solidly banded
in a darker, contrasting color. This seedling (09-93C, Ink Patterns child) is an example of the
color and pattern of early plicatas...always white ground, markings in the blue
to violet range.
Standards
could be almost solidly colored or devoid of markings entirely; falls could be
so widely banded that only a small area in the center is unmarked, or all
markings could be confined to the haft (upper area at beard level) with little
or no marginal marking on the rest of the fall. Many ultimate pattern
variations can occur, and considering color combinations of ground and
markings, the overall effects are almost limitless.
Image by Keith Keppel
Although the
first plicatas had a white ground, crosses with Iris variegata brought yellow
genes into the hybrid line. In the 1930's, plicatas with cream grounds began
occurring, and in the following years the cream has progressed to yellow. Here
is a Sorbonne seedling to show just how intense we can now have our yellow
grounds.
Image by Barry Blyth
In the
1950's, plicatas with the tangerine beard factor began to make an appearance in
iris catalogues. Although they still had white grounds, with time this has
changed, and we now have plicatas with pink, or pinkish, grounds instead of
white or yellow. This is another Sorbonne seedling, actually a sister to the
yellow ground seedling in the prior post!
Image by Barry Blyth
The
tangerine-factor plicatas began showing orange tones in the ground color, also.
This one is 11-64C, from complicated breeding with Sorbonne and three numbered
seedlings as grandparents.
When you
consider that those original blue/violet plicata markings will appear
differently on a yellow, pink, or orange ground than they did on white, you can
understand why so many plicata color combinations now exist!
Image by Barry Blyth
So many
pattern variations based on the plicata genes, yet there are still more possibilities. Plicata markings are done in
anthocyanin (water soluble) pigments....what if you change the capability of
the plicata genes to act?
Enter Paul
Cook. In the 1950's this master hybridizer began introducing a series of irises
which carried an inhibitor for the production of anthocyanins....in the
standards. These were the dominant amoenas (prior amoenas were due to a
different, recessive condition), also referred to as the 'Progenitor' or 'Whole
Cloth' factor. By the 1970's we had
plicatas which also carried this factor, with suppressed markings in the
standards but not the falls. We suddenly had "neglecta plicatas",
with paler markings in the standards, and "amoena plicatas" with
little or no standard markings. A whole new range of plicata variables was now
possible.
In 12-103J,
a grandchild of Ink Patterns, you can see how the plicata standard markings are
reduced to a very faint bluish shading along the petal margins. This seedling
also carries the "tangerine factor", hence the reddish beard hair
tips and the faint peach pink blush on the otherwise white ground near the
beard. A tangerine-bearded amoena-plicata.
Image by
Brad Collins
The
appearance of a plicata depends on the sum of its parts: markings + ground. If
we take that amoena plicata and put it on a yellow ground....voila!....a
variegata plicata. (And by extension, that yellow ground could also be pink or
orange instead.) This is 13-17A, from High Desert X Flash Mob.
Image by Brad Collins
Just as the
pigment application of plicata markings can vary, so can the application of
carotene (yellow, pink, orange) pigment in the ground. Most colored grounds
will have some white, or at least a paler area, in the center of the falls.
Fall color can vary from a distinct marginal band (like the falls on 'Debby
Rairdon') to a small spot below the beard. Rarely, the color can cover the
entire fall uniformly.
But what
about other ground patterns? It might be strongly colored hafts or upper fall.
Or possibly some variation of a carotene amoena, with or without the color
bleeding upward in the midrib of the otherwise-white standards.
13-21A, (Ink
Pattern seedling X Dark Energy), shows a yellow amoena style ground;
anthocyanin reduction in the standards minimalizes the plicata markings.
Image by Brad Collins
