Re: CULT: "Reversion" to White
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: CULT: "Reversion" to White
- From: "* M* C* o* B* S* <s*@aristotle.net>
- Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:50:32 -0600 (MDT)
Sharon writes:
>I DID observe that planting for several
>more years and the next year only the =
>cream-colored ones bloomed! Most
>years, two or three different ones
>bloomed -- but never all five. =
Now this Syncopation Theory makes sense. We all know that some irises skip
years, and some years irises that would have bloomed are knocked out by
late frosts.
Assume these "white reversions" are happening in beds that have been left
untended awhile so the rhizomes all run together. A late frost comes along,
knocks out all the pastels, say, and only a later-blooming white (or
purple) manages to bloom that year. The owners look out at the bed, see
nothing but whites (or purples) and assume the whites (or purples) have
eaten the pastels.
The folks who told Joe Spears they had started out with all colored irises
might have
1) ordered a colored collection from an unreliable nursery (maybe
Springhill) that slipped in a white by accident or
2) forgotten their original order included a white.
The white failed to bloom the first year, so when the people looked out,
they saw colors. Then over the years, the white began blooming. A vigorous
cultivar, it thrived and spread. One year, along came conditions right for
the whites but wrong for everything else. The people looked out and saw
nothing but white.
Or, maybe they are just wrong about where they planted what. We all know
how easily rhizomes are mixed up when transplanted. Right now I have a nice
clump of STEPPING OUT with a big fat yellow iris about to bloom in the
middle. I was sure I had tagged and moved all SO and nothing but SO into
that place. Maybe I messed up.
Or - maybe - my SO is reverting to yellow! <g>
celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas, USDA Zone 7b
-----------------------------------
257 feet above sea level,
average rainfall about 50 inches (more than 60" in '97)
average relative humidity (at 6 a.m.) 84%.
moderate winters, hot summers ... but lots of seesaw action in all seasons
