Re: TB looking for a name

Hi Betty,

I'll check into 'Black Out'.

It has been a challenge to find a really good "blue-black", but I never
really tried very hard.  Now having seen that beautiful thing at the Iris
Show, I'm on a quest.

From the photos I find on line and in catalogs you would think that there
are many of these "blue blacks", and maybe there are, but I've learned not
to trust these photos as always being accurate, since none of the ones I've
ordered are blue.

For instance, I've seen lots of photos of 'Superstition', which seems to be
one of the more popular "blacks", and the photos range from nearly red to
nearly true blue, and everything in between, one that was tampered to
remove all color, and even one that looks dark brown.  The only constant is
that they always show 'Superstition' being very dark, nearly black.  To me
the living flower is indeed a very dark, but it is clearly purple, and
there is a distinct element of red to the purple.

Superstition is a good example.  I ordered 'Superstition' the first time
because I saw a beautiful blue-black Iris in flower at a local broker
nursery.  Those plants had been special ordered for a commercial
landscaper, and the nursery wouldn't sell me any.  The plants at the
nursery had beautiful rich deep blue beards and were labelled
'Superstition'.  It turns out they were mislabelled.  'Superstition' is
nice too, but I'm getting enough of the more purple type "blacks" now, and
I'm starting to ignore which is which and throw a lot of them away (many
don't grow so well anyway).  Besides, blue is my favorite color, not
purple.  Plus, I have few Iris that are truly blue.

Betty you asked the following.

"Or do you mean really blue with a blue beard?"

What I am asking after would technically be really blue, but so dark as to
appear nearly black.  The blue beard would be an important bonus.  I like
blue, and would probably go for most any Iris from pale sky blue through
rich pure blue to deep black-blue.  I have a few light and medium blues
that are very nice (don't know the names of most), and that have very
little purple to them.  The really deep dark blues I have none of though.
The one I saw at the Iris show was very nearly black, but it had a sheen
that glowed rich blue when the light hit it just right.  The beard was dark
blue, but not nearly so dark as the tepals.  It was interesting to me that
nobody else seemed to pay attention to it or even really take notice.
Perhaps it wasn't quite modern enough (falls didn't flare out), or the
flower was too small (Superstition is larger, but not by a lot)?  The
little stripy MTB's got more attention.  Maybe it was just the fact that it
was relegated to no-man's land with no name?

Dave

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