Re: RE: HIST: IB: Lady Ema & PBF

Thanks Robin and Neil,

I bought 'Lady Emma' from Long's a few years back, but didn't record where
I planted it.  This plant is about where I would have put it, out in the IB
patch, and it matches photos so perfectly that I have always just assumed
it is indeed 'Lady Emma'.  I even clearly remember the day I planted it,
because I was waffling back and forth between MTB and IB.  I finally went
with my gut reaction to the plant and put it with the IB's.  It wouldn't
have fit in with the MTB's very well at all.  This plant (the same one?)
fits in with the IB's quite nicely, as it blooms at the same time, is
similar in size (a bit smaller than average perhaps), and so on.

Anyway, untill a couple of weeks ago, I would have sworn that it DIDN'T
have PBF, but then I dug it up to move it (it was getting swallowed by
'Eleanor Roosevelt', which grows faster, but looks the same out of bloom).
I'm still inclined to say that it doesn't have PBF, as this purplish sheath
seems to be a different thing.  Anyway, when I cleaned off the old stuff,
there was the freshly exposed portion of the leaf that sheaths the tuber,
all purplish, sort of a reddish-lavender, pale but vivid.  Once I noticed,
it allowed me to separate the two  intergrown cultivars easily, even the
parts that hadn't bloomed and hadn't been marked.  This purplish sheath is
the same as the photos posted as "purple rhizomes" some time back on
Iris-photos.  It is entirely underground, and not even looking like part of
the leaf unless you look really close.   I have not noticed this on any
other of my Iris so far, even the ones with strong PBF.  On all the others
this sheath is white or nearly so, with no purple color at all.  Of course
I haven't looked at all my Iris.  It brought the "purple rhizome" photos to
mind instantly when I saw it.

Here are some links to some of the discussion and photos on Iris Photos
from October of last year.  Mine didn't have the purple extend up into the
green at all, and wasn't quite as dark as this one.

http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/oct02/msg00352.html
http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/oct02/msg00353.html
http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/oct02/msg00354.html

Dave

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