Iris hunting... again

I went back to the bog today to check up on my mystery iris.  It was 
blooming!  I could see it for what seemed like a mile away.  A flash of 
bright purple-violet amidst a sea of green.  Major kudos to Christy Hensler 
who predicted it was Iris ensata based on my photos from last weekend.  She 
was right.  I took some photos today but it was getting too dark.  I will 
go back tomorrow morning when the sun should be in a better position.  The 
flowers were huge... about 5" to 6" across.  The circular clump was about 
3.5 ft in diameter.

But the best news is that I finally found the Iris brevicaulis.  I was 
overjoyed to find it was still blooming.  It grew in a triangular patch 
covering approx 20 ft x 10 ft alongside a tiny little stream.  There were 
no seed pods remaining from last year's crop.  Again, I will return 
tomorrow to get more photos of it.  The plant is most interesting.  The 
foliage reaches 24" but the blooms were only 6" to 8" off the ground.  The 
park rangers are propagating this at their nursery & offered me to help 
myself to their stock later in the fall.  They have literally thousands of 
them all propagated from seeds & plants obtained at the site I visited today.

So I may not have any wild stuff for SIGNA this year, but definitely next year.

Dennis in Cincinnati



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