Re: HIST: CORONATION?

From: Mike Lowe <mlowe@worldiris.com>

My first post on the CORONATION--VIRGINIA MOORE mix-up was queued and
posted before finishing. 'Intelligent' programs will sometimes bite.

Here is the rest: An exact match of VIRGINIA MOORE to CORONATION first
surfaced in Cameron Hall's garden when he obtained the Marion Shull
granddaughter's/Clarence Mahan's VIRGINIA MOORE from us. (We did not and do
not grow CORONATION). The provenience of the Marion Shull
granddaughter/Clarence Mahan V.M. is as good as can be found for an older
iris. It was grown in an unbroken chain, in the Shull family, in the
suburban Washington area, continuously until given to Clarence and then to
us.

Two other gardens in the southern Virginia area are each growing a
'Coronation' that exactly matched the Shull family VIRGINIA MOORE.

I sent photos of VIRGINIA MOORE, and CORONATION as photographed in a
Michigan garden, to Phil Edinger, the HIPS Identification Chairman. The
same photos are posted on "Comparison chart, small flowered yellow iris" on
the HIPS website. Phil said that the photo corresponded to what he grows as
CORONATION and, while he does not grow VIRGINIA MOORE, the photo of V.M.
was a good match to all descriptions of V.M. that he has encountered.

Sounds good, but here is the kicker:  Marion Shull granddaughter's/Clarence
Mahan's VIRGINIA MOORE has purple tinged foliage bases as does CORONATION.
Marion Shull's "Rainbow Fragments" does not give information as to foliage
base color for VIRGINIA MOORE nor does the cultivar description from the
Bulletin of the AIS.

Shull was meticulous in mentioning cultivars' foliage color in "Rainbow
Fragments." Could he -- would he, overlook mentioning purple based foliage
on his own introduction? It strains credulity. Is what we believe to be an
unequivocally provenienced VIRGINIA MOORE an impostor? If so, what could it
be?

The 1933 'Royal Iris Gardens' catalog has a colored photo of CORONATION. It
is a good match for the CORONATION as photographed in the Michigan garden,
absent distortions induced by the tinting process. It does not resemble
VIRGINIA MOORE.

Photos of all three are posted on "Comparison chart, small flowered yellow
iris" on the HIPS website.

Cheers,

Mike,  mlowe@worldiris.com   --   http://www.worldiris.com
South Central Virginia, USA; USDA Zone 7A

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