Re: CULT: Blooming White, turning purple
Loberg wrote:
> John... about 10 years ago I had an English Dykes iris, name forgotten
Kanchenjunga?
White City?
>
> that was white and very hardy.
> I had it in a bed with many others, and I
> wasn't as careful in those days to keep the iris divided and given proper
> maintenance. After about 3-4 years, most of the bed turned white. If I
> hadn't gotten to know this particular iris by it's traits (size/bloom
> form/branching), I too would have assumed or wondered if all my iris had
> turned white. Even the older rhizomes had died and it would appear that
> they were not connected, and it would have been easy to assume that that the
> rhizomes belonged to the other colors. But the telltale identification was
> the stalk/branching/form of the white, there was no mistaking the variety.
> I've yet to see proof that an iris changes color to white. I've got other
> historic iris that will easily crowd out and take over a garden as well.
> Kitty Loberg
I've been cautioning home growers that if they should carefully remove bee pods
or dead blooms when the flower is done. Among historics I've noticed two color
forms dominating in the diploids. One is a pale lavendar, which has taken over a
bed that was in front of my house before I came here, and which pops up in my
historic and species beds. The other is the old, early blooming (IB?) form of
I. germanica - I have it labeled nepalensis. Purple bitone with white beards -
the flower Van Gogh probably painted, and one of the ones we call Granny's blue
flag. No doubt a lot of old beds were once more varied, but through bees and
natural hybridizing, they came to be taken over by dominant color forms. A few
years ago I rescued a bunch of iris from a historic building in Historic
Jonesborough, and have been able to determine they are currently mostly I.
germanica and Alcazar. Natural hybridizing has also led to a couple of
recessives: a purple self with Alcazar's beards and throat, and a paler version
of Alcazar.
Ah, bloom is at it's peak, shows loom, and already the chore of removing bee
pods comes crushing down.
James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN
comeback@usit.net
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