Re: General garden catalogs

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I suspect if you go back and look at old posts, you'll find that there has been comment on this "wrong photo" subject on almost a yearly basis.  Too bad it never gets fixed.

 

This stock "photo" thing has been going on since the beginning of colored catalogs.  If you go back the the beginning, you find the same thing.  Sometimes it was a purposeful attempt to deceive, and sometimes it was I think simply an honest attempt to find something similar to show.  If you go back to the catalogs in the 40's, 50's, and 60's you also see the same sort of shared pictures in different company's catalogs.  Back then they were often grossly touched up (the touching up isn't usually so bad now).  It was common to see the same photo (or painting) reproduced with different coloring two or three times on the same page!  I remember that Gurney's (I think it was Gurney's anyway), for many years used the same picture to show Sunburst Honey Locust and Rubylace Honey Locust.  One showed yellow foliage, and the other was flipped around and showed red foliage, sometimes they were side by side, and thought it was funny, but it never bothered me.  At least there was an attempt to make it look reasonably similar to the plant in question. 

 

In the case of this variegated Iris, I think the photo must be mislabeled by Horticopia (or whoever is supplying it) and the people putting the catalogs together (and probably the "nurseries" selling the plants) don't have a clue.  I do think it is very sad that the sellers don't even know what they are selling.  Now if they were really selling Iris pallida 'Variegata', then the photo would be a good one.  What's really funny, is that in past years I have indeed seen I. pallida 'Variegata' for sale on the same page as other variegated Iris (I. pseudacoris and I. laevigata), and yet this photo (or one very like it) was still labeled as either I. pseudacoris or I. laevigata, and never as I. pallida - go figure.

 

As for the general public.  Most average people have very little interest in plants (I found this to be true world wide) and most don't care what the name is.  When they order from the these catalogs they are ordering something pretty for their yard, and will probably never notice the difference.  I'm not saying this excuses the misrepresentation (whether intentional or not), but it does allow it to continue without too much complaint.

 

Dave