Pearl,
I have been trying to track down for a few years now the name of a yellow
early flowering IB Historic Iris that is grown commonly in central
NM. It was very common here 20 years ago, but it is gradually dying out
of cultivation. Even so, it is still not rare. Rarely it reblooms,
but most years it does not.
I thought the one here was "Berkeley Gold" when I saw the photo
at HIPS, but it doesn't fit 'Berkeley Gold'. The photo is exactly the
same in all details of flower; however, the Albuquerque Iris has no trace of
purple at the leaf bases, and it only rarely reaches TB height (mostly only
about 12 or 13 inches tall in the usual abandoned conditions it grows in;
mostly about 20 inches in the average garden; and rarely to 30 inches
in moist fertile conditions with just a bit of shade). The
flower is too small for Berkeley Gold too. I wonder if the HIPS photo is
indeed of the same Iris I see here in Albuquerque, and not of 'Berkeley
Gold' at all?
One possibility that has come up is 'Golden Bow', but I haven't seen this
one flower yet, and the photos I've seen are not clear enough for
identification.
If we have the same Iris, it would be good to know, and good to identify
it. Basically to me, the one here looks like a yellow
flowering I. x germanica. When planted next to the "standard" sort of I.
x germanica, this just looks like the same thing in another color.
Funny how I twisted this back to the I. germanica subject.
Anyway.
You are quite a bit ahead of us up here, there are no flowers on any of
the IB's yet (including this yellow one and albicans), but there are hints of
bud development. The first brave buds to start pushing got frozen off in
February; most years those make it, but most years it doesn't get down to 9 F
or lower so late in the season.
We do have I. reticulata and relatives blooming now (for perhaps three
weeks now, but peaking two weeks ago), and the last of those will be gone
soon. They are quite late this year, but it was a cold winter,
particularly in February. The "Dutch" Iris have been growing foliage all
winter, and the rabbits eating them down as fast as they grow. They seem
to be winning now. Foliage is starting to grow vigorously on most of the
other Iris as well.
Dave
