Irises - Historic Iris Preservation Society

28 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING
allied group Regelia whose members are distinguished
by being far more floriferous and far more amenable to
cultivation in England. These Regelia Irises are so called
after a certain Dr. Regel, who, as Director of the St.
Petersburg
Botanic Garden, was able to introduce into cultivation
so many plants from Central Asia. The finest is Leichtlinii,
with flowers of a fawn or brown colour shot with electric
blue and gracefully waved at the edge, but the best known
is /. Korolkowii, after one of the numerous Russian generals
or explorers, who have enriched our gardens and come near
to breaking our jaws. Iris lovers may be thankful that
Przewaldski found no new Irises, though he brought back
many specimens of Mongolian and Central Asian species.
Gentiana P-r-z may be as good as its name is bad, but one
such name is
enough.
When even Sir Michael Foster in his marvellous garden
on the south slope of a hill at Shelford found that the
Oncocyclus species could not be induced to settle down
there permanently, he set to work to infuse as many of
their characteristics as possible into more vigorous plants.
He experimented in two directions, and in both met with
some success. Plants of the Regelia section fertilised
with Oncocyclus pollen produced hybrids far stronger
and more vigorous than either parent. The flower
combined the shape and to some extent the colouring
of the father with the floriferous character and general
habit of the mother. Similar hybrids raised by the
Haarlem firm of Van Tubergen are now widely distributed,
and, though scarcely sufficiently distinct one from another,
they form a very valuable addition to gardens.
It is difficult to specify any particularly good specimens