RE: Iris hexagona

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Sean,

Unfortunately, all I know about Florida irises comes from reading and talking.  I live in the New Orleans area and have never ventured to Florida to look at irises.  However, take a look at the a pdf of three articles.  http://zydecoirises.com/Species/Florida/FloridaIrises.pdf  There is also a chapter on Florida irises in Clarence Mahan’s book.

One of the three articles is old and nomenclature has changed.  I do know one per! son, Benny Trahan, who has traveled from here to Florida on two occasions to search for irises.  I will see if he has areas he can recommend. 

I would imagine that bloom has already begun among some of the Florida irises.   Last year Benny gave me two types of I. hexagona, one early blooming and one late.  The early bloomer opened here last week.  I suspect that it will be several weeks before the late one opens.  More evidence that not all the Florida irises in the Hexagona Series should be lumped into one category. 

Two pictures of the early I. hexagona are attached.  Note the rich ! blue purple color.  Really, more purple to my eye.  ! The blue species in Louisiana tend more to lighter blue colors.  The colors in hybrids, sometimes natural hybrids, can be this rich, but to find this color in a Louisiana species would be unusual.  Generally, there is quite a bit of color variation in the species, however, due to introgression or who-knows-what.

Patrick