Re: CULT:Late bloomers

jgcrump <jgcrump@erols.com> wrote:
Other late bloomers here:  Joseph's Coat, Kaleidoscope 
Griff - zone 7 in Virginia

Griff,

I am aware that in my garden individual cultivars are generally consistent in their relative time of bloom from year to year, though irises grown in partial shade or newly planted/ replanted rhizomes do tend to bloom later than they would otherwise. However, the mention of the two cultivars that I copied above from your list of late bloomers causes me to wonder if there might not be factors across different environments that affect the relative bloom time of the same irises in different locales.

I have grown HONORABILE and its sports, KALEIDOSCOPE, JOSEPH'S COAT, and BROWN'S MUTANT anywhere from 3 to 15 years. Since they are all presumably genetically identical except for floral pattern, they tend to come into bloom simultaneously when grown under the same conditions. However, in my garden these irises are best described as early midseason bloomers, and certainly not as late bloomers. They are all in full bloom now, and I am still several days away from peak TB bloom.

In general, I consider bearded irises that are consistent late bloomers to be poor garden value here, as the weather almost always turns abruptly hot and dry about 2/3 of the way through the bloom season and causes the bloom on those that bloom late to be both short in duration and disappointing in quality.



Jeff Walters
in northern Utah
(USDA Zone 4)
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