Re: HYB:Maiden bloom:Anomalies

John and all--
The point is that the first year rhizome hasn't had the time to truly realize its full strength. Maiden bloom on a lot of cultivars tends to be shorter, with smaller flowers, and perhaps not fully color developed. Branching may be less etc. 


So....if a seedling waits 2-3 years to bloom, has a few fans with stalks....
then wouldn't "getting to full strength" be a moot point? I have had seedlings
make small clumps with nice sized rhizomes, but the original fan did not bloom until the third season. It was strong enough to make several increases, but just did not initiate a stalk. I guess the questioon is that although it is FIRST bloom, can you really call it maiden bloom in that it may not be fully developed? And like some others, I have had "maiden bloom" that was spectacular, but the saturation, size and height never reappeared again. Sometimes I wonder (particularly being in the midwest) if climate is the cause of most anomalies. Maybe maiden bloom is just a tad late because it is undeveloped, causing all the aforementioned things? Or perhaps an overachiever that is a tad early? And here we rarely see iris seedlings develop better blooms in years subsequent to maiden bloom, usually it is 
WYSIWYG for the life of the plant. Just sitting and speculating.

John Bruce
Hidden Acres Iris Gardens
http://home.cinci.rr.com/hiddenacres
hidnacre@cinci.rr.com 
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