Egyptian Iris

Did we ever identify what it looks like or it's latin name? I had some seeds marked Egyptian Iris, not sure where I got them from. I don't think it was stormy19. I started a few. They germinated very well, I started 3 seeds and all three are growing rapidly. I started them in Dec and all are about 7" tall already (you can see a picture in my journal). I can't wait until they bloom... but if you start a Iris from seed how long before it blooms? Two years, three... four, I may be pulling my hair out by then!

Crimson, I got seedlings last summer from a friend, they are "African Iris" or "Fortnight Lily". family Iridaceae, Dietes vegeta

Is this what you mean? http://64.4.22.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5bdccf37c68fa25bde25e5b7a0178b65&lat=1042656339&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2edesert%2dtropicals%2ecom%2fPlants%2fIridaceae%2fDietes_vegeta%2ehtml

((( hugs ))) to you and your DH and family :)

Wow! I hope that's what they are, it sure is pretty... I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

Not sure they are all that hardy. Mine did overwinter here on the unheated porch, but never did bloom last summer. Hoping it survives and blooms this year. Tonight will be a test, might go to 8 degrees. I refuse to 'baby' another "tropical" indoors! John

Aw, John, can't you make room for just one more? *grin* I know the feeling; I had to let 4 of my pelargoniums die in the cold. But I put these in a big clay pot with 2 hoya and 2 tropical ferns. They all get along well, and all are thriving.

Crimson, is this what yours looks like (the foliage, anyway?) Mine just look like typical bulb foliage, mini glads maybe, or something like that.

lupinelover: I'm not sure what your's look like, the hyperlink didn't work for me. Here's mine.

Here's the seeds. If it is the "African Iris"/ "Fortnight Lily" (Dietes vegeta) the rest of the seeds are going to have to be traded off.... I can't baby more than three, and I'm not sure how long I'll be able to baby them! I move fairly often and always have many more plants to "carry" than I have room for!

This message was edited Thursday, Jan 16th 5:39 PM

The plant looks right for Dietes vegeta. Can't tell from your picture of seeds, so here are some seeds I just took from my Fortnight Lily. It self seeds very easily in my yard, but is very attractive - both in foliage and flower. I have had this plant in my garden since the 1960's.

Hi guys,
I would very much like to see what this Dietes vegeta looks like, however lupinelover's link takes me to some weird note about an expired hotmail e-mail message (Huh????)
I am not familiar with this particular species, nor with the rather strange common name, Egypt is at the wrong end of Africa! ;-)
Crimson, your seedling looks very much like a Dietes, and so do the seeds.
lupinelover, could you please post a picture of the flower in this thread so that I could see? Thank you very much!
maddy

Hi, maddy - check this out: http://plantsdatabase.com/go/572/ and here's Desert Tropical's entry for it: http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Iridaceae/Dietes_vegeta.html

Here is a photo of one of my plants taken this morning.

Thanks, go_vols, for the link.
Hmm, now I still don't know what D.vegeta looks like, because there are at least 3 different species in the DB! Maybe the first one is it? The second seems to look different, can't really tell, it looks like someone sat on it. The third and the last show Dietes grandiflora, and the yellow one is D.bicolor. Desert Tropicals also shows the flower of D.grandiflora....
I haven't checked yet if the other two species have an entry in the DB or not.
Here is a picture of D.grandiflora.
sorry about that! maddy

Maddy, a huge problem in US is that so many tropical plants are sold mis-named. In the past, almost all the tuberous or bulberous (bulberous? sounds weird) ones were collected from the wild, and shipped off as whatever the nursery requested, regardless of whether the plants are correct. In many parts of the world, this has led to near-extinction of species (Turkey and cyclamen, for a well-known example). To a large extent, this no longer happens, due to a lot of treaties, but there are still some less-than-scrupulous nurseries that keep up with this practice.

Please, since you seem to know a lot about the correct classification, can you go into the PDB and clean it up?

Mine hasn't bloomed yet; the foliage is just that: foliage. It looks a lot like glad foliage right now. It is growing in a hanging pot with several other things, and isn't especially photogenic (I did try).

About the weird link: it works OK for me. Go_Vols posted the same one that I did.

bulbuous, perhaps? I experienced the same link problem as maddy, so it must be something caching in your browser, Kathy.

But yes at any rate, I agee with your assessment and request. In fact, I encourage anyone who spots errors in the PDB to please (PLEASE) let us know. That's why we put the "Report an Error" link in there, to make it easy to report an error, and for us to follow the link back to the entry and figure out what needs to be fixed.

For online resources, there is a decent (IMO) gallery of photos of bulb plants at the International Bulb Society's website: http://www.bulbsociety.com/ Unfortunately, descriptions are sparse to nonexistent. But I do believe they have tried to ensure each photo is accurate, and the images will hopefully provide some clues as for the lesser-known/lesser-grown species.

I forgot to post, I also have Dr. Thad Howard's book of bulbs of the south (referring to southern U.S.), which does include details of many lesser-known natives and naturalized bulbs. As soon as the PDB challenge winds down, I'll drag it out and see what Dr. Howard says about Moraea/Dietes (if he says much of anything :)

This morning I composed a nice long reply (it sure takes time to be pedantic! ;-), then hit the send button, got the message: this page can not be displayed... and my whole beautiful essay had unretrievably disappeared!! Sigh. I hate computers.
Well, let me try again. It's only half as long as it was this morning, though.

Dietes has been split fom Moraea because it has fibrous roots (Moraea has a corm). "Dietes - two relatives, drawing attention to the position of this genus between Moraea and Iris" (quote E.Pooley)

I only found two references to D.vegeta. The one in an old book (1967, Sima Eliovson): "D.vegeta is very similar [to D.grandiflora] but with smaller flowers about 2 - 3 inches across." (D.grandiflora is 3 - 4 1/2 in across). She mentions Moraea iridioides as synonym of D.grandiflora.
The other reference is in the RHS Encyclopaedia of Houseplants, giving to D.vegeta the synonyms M.iridoides and M.catenulata. And, ohmygosh, the IBS gallery has it wrong, too!
Geez, and I thought only the Succulents were complicated!

maddy

I had no idea my three little plants were so... complicated. I'm a novice gardener I think my seeds should be spread around among the "experts" here at DG to ensure a good supply for the future DG members. I trade with people from many sites, I'm not sure where they came from... but if they are a hard to come by seed I need to get them sent off immediately since I know they are germinating quite well right now and with some seeds that can be a short time. Any "pros" want to try some?

This message was edited Wednesday, Jan 22nd 1:05 AM

So, Crimson - which species are they? ;-)
maddy

I wish I knew.... they are a complete mystery to me, I didn't even know what they were when I started this thread... I hate to dissappiont anyone, I guess they can only be called "mystery flowers" labeled as Egyptian Iris and assumed to be some kind of Dietes.

I'm just pulling your leg, Crimson! :-)
But please do post a picture when yours is flowering!
maddy

Will do... any idea how many years it will take to flower from seed?

I have never grown them from seed. They do seed themselves freely in the garden, but I am not watching them how they grow, I have to pull them out to prevent them from taking over.
So the time to the first flower is just a wild guess: perhaps in the third season? I suppose it depends on the length of growing season, and the temperatures.
This is one tough plant, drought-resistant, wind and frost tolerant (don't know how cold exactly they can take, but here they get occasionally a few degrees C below freezing - mine have gone through 25 F without any problems.

Funny, just today I saw in a nursery a plant very similar to D.grandiflora but with very small 2 inch flowers - I wonder if this was D.vegeta - it was tagged D.grandiflora...

maddy

Crimson, you have email!

Love, Lavanda