So lucky all of you to see these wonderful iris in habitat, and to grow some of them. It is too wet here but I have a friend, Pat Toolan, who lives in the rain shadow E of here and she grows hundreds of them - Cyclus, Oncocyclus, Regeliocyclus etc. Pat has grown all her iris plants from seed, a very long, tedious and demanding process. As she has described it to me she soaks the seeds, after scarifying the external skin, and then peels the skin off to expose the tiny 'nib' that will grow into a seedling. At this point she excises the nib and grows it in a sterile Agar mix under laboratory conditions. Eventually the tiny plantlets are potted on and after some years intensive cultivation are planted on a bare hillside in deep beds of dazzling white marble chips. By this means the roots can reach down into the soil while the rhizomes are in the perfectly drained chips. Even so Pat takes up some rhizomes every year to store them 100% dry until winter. Needless to say Pat in known internationally for her efforts to grow them, particularly the species. Her garden is near Keyneton in the Alte Barossa. tn