irisarian said:Terms can be a bit confusing. I would call flowers like Gypsy Lord a 'zonal' rather than Emma Cook. EC has a very narrow band ie like Queens Circle. Flowers which have a white zone under the beards come from a different inheritance.
I am more familiar with the spot pattern in SDBs which comes from I.pumila. therefore I have never worked with Emma Cook flowers. the best current hybridizers working now with the pattern seem to be Fred Kerr, Keith Keppel & Joe Ghio. I had never seen 'Northern Mist' (Hal Staley) which would certainly qualify for the pattern. I'm afraid that we won't have a long post today.
Lucy -- I Googled *Emma Cook Pattern in Irises* -- and came up with Winterberry Irises definition. It agreed with Cubits' definition -- but added the following: "The border can be broader, grading from darker at the periphery".
It doesn't describe HOW broad that border can be, but it does expand the *narrow band* definition. And none of the definitions that I have found mention a white zone under the beard, at all, either pro or con. In fact, doesn't the white zone create the band? If the white zone wasn't there -- there would be no band and the Iris would be an Amoena, right? White standards and purple falls?
I think we're going to have to be flexible in our definitions until the *powers that be* (whoever they are) come to an agreement on explicit definitions.
This is hard.
