I know most irises will change from their first bloom to subsequent ones, but I have never heard of one changing like this one has. It bloomed for the first time in 2003, one perfect stalk on one weak fan, obviously a bloom-out. I loved the blue-black satin standards over the black velvet falls illuminated by a sunflower yellow beard. I cut the stalk, put it on my dining table and almost cried over it, because I was so sure that first stalk would be its last.
Later that fall I found a shoot coming up where the plant had died. I protected it. It grew well and made a good clump that bloomed in 2005. I felt really disappointed. It didn’t look at all the one I remembered. The falls were dark violet with mahogany hafts. The beards were rust. I believed it had to be a different sibling. For three years it bloomed like that. It was a good grower with nice stalks, so I lined it out. Some of my iris club members chose it as their favorite of my seedlings, but I couldn’t care much for it.
One morning this April when I went to that iris bed, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was bursting into bloom, and every blossom was just like the first one. I am still amazed by it. I didn’t know that beards could change color, but these have from brilliant orange-yellow to dull rust and back again. The first picture shows it this spring. The second as it looked in ’05, ’06 and ’07. I am planning to register it, but every year I will wonder which blossoms it is going to have this time.
Francelle Edwards Glendale, AZ Zone 9
