Re: Identification of Iris---a variegata

In a message dated 97-01-21 09:16:45 EST, Julie Finn wrote:

<< If anyone has access to Ken Druse's new book, The Collector's Garden,
 would you kindly look on page 46 and identify the bearded iris shown
 growing in Roger Raiche's garden?
 Gotta have it... >>

It is very, very difficult, indeed, really impossible to identify an iris by
a photograph.  The best one can do is say "It might be......." or "it looks
like.....".   The iris you have asked about it a modern tall bearded iris of
the type we call a "variegata."  It appears to be growing in quite a bit of
shade, which would cause the color to be more intense than if grown in full
sun.  This would also affect branching, which appears quite "close", and
height (irises tend to grow taller in the shade as they "reach" for light.)

The iris might be SMART ALECK (Gatty 88), which performs reasonably well in
Virginia.  It does not appear ruffled enough to be MARY ELLEN NICHOLS
(Nichols 90).  A similar iris, and my current favorite in this color class,
is TEXAS GLORY (Nichols 94), which seems to differ from the iris in the
photograph in being better branched and having a slight gold edge on the
falls. But as I said, the branching can very quite a bit depending on both
culture and site where grown.  

A currently very poplular iris in this color class is SUPREME SULTAN...but I
personally will not recommend it because it can have a lot of difficulty
standing up straight and tall in the garden, and often has to be staked.  I
certainly think you would be happy with SMARK ALECK or TEXAS GLORY.  And I
have seen MARY ELLEN NICHOLS doing quite nicely in a couple of mid-Atlantic
gardens.  Clarence Mahan in VA
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