RE: ANOMOLY?

>
>Now the anomaly, if indeed it is such.  On my VSOIs (very superior old
>irises), the pale yellow un-named TBs I keep talking about, there are a
>profusion of bloomstalks and many buds.  About five stalks are now in
>bloom. The bloomstalks range from 19 to 32" and the tallest has five
>buds on one stalk.  The others that are as tall have four on each and
>the smaller ones have three.  I've never seen five buds on an iris TB
>bloomstalk, or any other for that matter.  these irises were the ones
>that were divided yet bloomed profusely the very next spring (which was
>last spring).  This year they are even better.  Are they really very
>superior or are five buds to a stalk not unusual?
>
>They have pale yellow standards with a slightly darker petal edge with
>falls that are white tinged with the palest lemon with brown veins and
>yellow beards.  And I know they were in the ground at that farmhouse
>probably for 50 years.  the lady who sold the farm is very old now but I
>think she planted them when she was quite young.  I must ask her. they
>are the kind that when you dig them up and get tired of replanting
>because here are so many of them, you just throw them over the fence
>into the fields and they bloom the next year.
>
At the show in Poughkeepsie I found out that my VSOI is probably I.
flavescens. It may also be your yellow. The descriptions match, and it
seems to be very common in this area. Hortus III opines that it isn't
really a species, but rather a very old garden hybrid. That's definitely
what it looks like to my eyes. We saw it labelled at Presby Gardens in New
Jersey, but there it was just a pale, wimpy shadow of the iris that
inhabits my garden. The flowers were the same though, pale yellow with
brown veins on the falls, ethereal substance, and a lemon yellow fragrance
to match. The clump is now headed into it's third week of bloom, and is as
magnificent now as it was two weeks ago.

BTW this was the iris that made me decide that if this was what iris were
like, they were definitely good things to have:)

Kay Cangemi
Cangemi@netstep.net
New York, USDA zone 5
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index