The German Iriswiki

First steps with iriswiki.org

After a first small Iriswiki with Google Sites I launched a "real" Iriswiki about one month ago. It is now available for everyone at iriswiki.org or iriswiki.de.

I decided to use the famous Media Wiki in order to get a familiar appearance. Now the skin is wikipedia-like and there are first articles. I think that I will have to bear with the participation of other iris enthusiast at the outset, but I hope that someday iriswiki.org will be able to give information about irises in classified order (above all in German language).
As yet I achieved the support site, an article about Space Age Irises, information for more than 20 TB varieties and some framework.
I wonder whether all German iris breeders will recognize the benefits of a collaborative project...

Better acces to information about irises

The new iris wiki

I have been planning to launch an Iris Wiki for about two years and now it's ready to be fed with plenty of information. I know, that the AIS already has a big, well-structured Wiki, but it was important to me to start up a German version. This German Iris Wiki shall by no means be a solo action to absent from other iris lovers around the world. It shall rather be a hub where every interested person can have a look on all the important information. When the work with irises attracted my interest, I sometimes had problems with getting at the right information. So I started thinking about how it would be possible for everybody to gain access to a large amount of expert knowledge. The simple solution is a database, but I know that I wouldn't be able to do it on my own so the Wiki seemed to be the perfect project. A Wiki is a php-based online database which is extended and controlled by all participants. If you are interested in any special aspect - create a new site, if you are looking for a picture - look for it in the wiki, if you want to introduce an own breeding - show it everybody by entering it into the Wiki....

I am going to provide a support, which shall simplify the work with the special wiki syntax. And if you still don't have the confidence to try creating a new site, you can always send me an email with the data that shall be entered into the Wiki.

And here it is:

One year of iriszucht.de

Looking backward and forward

In July 2012, after hesitating for a long time, I put my site iriszucht.de on the Web. A lot of things have happened since then - new chapters have been opened, the appearence of the site has been changed several times and iriszucht.de expanded into the social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest and of course Blogger. It seems to be more and more important for everyone to stay connected with other people and there is a vast number of new possibilities in the net. Because iriszucht.de shall become a gathering place for everyone, who is interested in irises, it is necessary to further concentrate on networking. Besides I am conscious that iriszucht.de still needs more information about irises, their breeding and all those other absorbing facts, but you should know that there are already big themes in the works. Basic aspects, like "Beardless Irises" or "Bulbous Irises" will come and I am always trying to expand and improve already existing chapters. I am looking forward to make iriszucht.de even better - chapter by chapter, day by day. I hope that you will enjoy the pleasure of seeing irises of other people even as I do. Your comments and activities on iriszucht.de and its social profiles will always benefit the site!

Chacun à son goût or a winning trend?

The future of iris breeding

Today I decided to start a little new breeding line besides my normal breeding program.
I really like "unusual" irises such as broken color irises, irises with variegated foliage and space age irises. I would like to combine these features in one plant just to see whether it is worth it to go away from the natural appearance of irises more and more.
In the past the targets of iris breeding seemed to be clear: making irises stronger, clearer in patterns and color and more versatile and resistant. But you can't carry things too far. I wonder which trends will present themselves in the future - What will we have to work on? Of course some features such as blooming time and resistance are not nearly exhausted, but what can be done by breeders if the potential of new, better irises is decreasing? One trend seems to be to alter irises more than it might be good. Some breeders are anon trying to bring irises back to their established, more original appearance. I am not sure, whether there will be a trend, which is winning through, but I am going to tell you what I learn by combining new motives. And maybe we could start a discussion on what will be most important in the future of iris breeding.

The iriszucht.de-Blog

Starting up

I wasn't sure, whether I should start a blog, but there are a lot of ideas I would like to share.
Networking brings great advantages for all plant lovers. If you want to get to know, how my website www.iriszucht.de and my breeding garden are developing and which interesting facts I found in the world wide web - see it for yourself!

Regards
Christian