Bloom Report -- bearded iris

From: Marte Halleck <MorJHalleck@worldnet.att.net>

Up in the Colorado foothills, I'm still enjoying lots of new blooms on
TBs, BBs & MTBs. (For that matter, the lilac bushes across the road from
me are in peak flower, too -- my own lilacs finished their meager show
about a week ago. I had very few flowers because our Antlered Friends
ruthlessly pruned my bushes in late August-early September last year,
thereby munching '98's buds.)

Amongst the mystery irises now flowering for the first time here I've
got one TB that is either EDITH WOLFORD or a ringer. Since I don't yet
own a reliably-named rz of EW, I can't swear to this ID & I know there
are a couple of other intros that are quite similar. The one I have is
nicely formed & ruffled, has slightly mustard-yellow standards &
blue-violet falls but I can't recall the beard color -- I think it's
yellow. In my soil & growing conditions, the bloomstalk is about 32". 

This brings up a question: when measuring bloomstalk height, does one
include the open flower or measure from the plant's crown to the *base*
of the flower? Inquiring minds would like to know...

Another of the nameless TBs has proved to be a very handsome white self,
with good ruffling & nice substance. I remembered to check -- it has a
white beard, not a hint of yellow or lavender anywhere. The flower is
large & the stalk is tall (33") & straight. The only fault is relative
lack of branching & thereby fewer buds, at least as it's growing this
year. Both this TB & the possible EDITH WOLFORD were planted last year
in mid-August, relatively late for this area, so I'm pleased they
bloomed at all this summer.

Got a couple of nice "little guys" flowering -- from overall size, I'm
dubbing these MTBs. They're very similar, clear blue S & slightly darker
F, but one has a yellow beard & the other is white. Another mystery
clump started flowering a couple of days ago & I think this must be a
BB, again based on overall size. It has buff S & pale lavender F. It is
a bit wishy-washy but my son says it has a nice sweet yet spicey
fragrance. (I have no sense of smell, never have had, so I have to
recruit "smellers" to find out what, if any, fragrance the things I grow
have. This can occasionally prove quite a surprise to both parties!)

Not all of the mystery iris I planted last summer are going to flower
this year, which is too bad since I'm really curious to find out what
they are. However, there are still several that have fat buds getting
ready to open so at least I'll get a good look at these in '98.

Marte in the mtns	Zone 4/Sunset 1  Colorado

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