Re: SA: Spage Agers and Abhorrance
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: SA: Spage Agers and Abhorrance
- From: "* M* C* o* B* S* <s*@aristotle.net>
- Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 10:20:49 -0700 (MST)
Sharon asks
>What is Spage Age? How would it differ from a modern hybrid or an
>older species iris? Sorry to be so uninformed.
Don't be sorry! Lack of information so pleasantly expressed makes everyone
else enjoy your company. Gives us an opportunity to feel informed. We like
that.
This is from "The World of Irises" in a chapter on "novelties":
"Horns, Spoons and Flounces
"Irises with such outgrowths are by far the most controversial of the
Novelties. They are identified by changes in the growth of the beard area
so that it extends beyond the normal position on the fall and forms short
to longer pointed horns, often bearded, or long threadlike filaments tipped
by small petaloids as in the spooned types, or multipetaled boat-shaped
flounces without beards. In the best forms, this phenomenon can be curious,
decorative and even esthetically exciting as are some of the graceful
spooned types. Well-formed horns can lend the flower an air of infectious
jollity."
Introduced by Lloyd Austin in 1961, these plants usually also exhibit
modern form, which generally means wider standards and falls that have
stiff substance and so stand out rather than droop down, sometimes even to
the horizontal.
If you look at pictures of species irises, the progenitors of the modern
hybrids, you'll see diversity of form, but we think of species plants as
having narrower and droopier falls. And many of them would not put out as
many blooms per stalk as a modern hybrid should.
But there are more than three pages of species plants listed in TWOI. Some
have gorgeous colors and charming shapes, some have stiff substance, some
flower their heads off. Some may have have horns for all I know.
Iris diversity is simply amazing!
celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas, USDA Zone 7b
-----------------------------------
257 feet above sea level,
average rainfall about 50 inches (more than 60" in '97)
average relative humidity (at 6 a.m.) 84%.
moderate winters, hot summers ... but lots of seesaw action in all seasons
