HIST: Unidentified Amoenas and ROMEO

From: HIPSource@aol.com

In a message dated 5/24/99 11:13:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
hirundo@tricon.net writes:

<< I have currently blooming Rhein Nixe, Pfauenauge, Iduna, and Loreley from
 G&K and all are much lighter in the falls than Frosted Velvet. I also have
 Mrs. Andrist blooming just this weekend, and it is close to Frosted Velvet.
 It would get my vote.  >>

In my garden MILDRED PRESBY is darker in the falls than MRS. ANDRIST, but I 
have obseved that it shows some variation. I saw three plants in two gardens 
other than my own this past week and while it was always recognizable, I was 
surprised at how much redder the purple was on one blooming in a shadier 
corner. That could also have just been the light changing on it at late 
afternoon. The standards on MP are also more ivory than those on MA. I don't 
know IDUNA.  LORELEY is a variegata and "Pfauenauage" is a distictive 
multicolored iris with red shoulders. 

I say "Pfauenauage" since it is ithe opinion of Phil Edinger, HIPS ID 
Chairman, that the real PFAUENUAGE ( G.u.K ,1906) is probably extinct and 
that which we have all been growing under that name--which  means "peacock's 
eye"-- is actually ROMEO (Millet, 1912). 

Comparison of the photos in the article in ROOTS in which this instance of 
the "usurper syndrome"  is discussed show that ROMEO and PFAUENUAGE 
[fow-en-nwa-guh] are nearly identical.  If you obtained your start anywhere 
other than from a domestic source, you may wish to send a rhizome to Phil 
Edinger at the address in the front of your current ROOTS and ask him to grow 
it on for comparison and vetting. We'd be very interested in finding a 
specimen of the earlier iris.

The article in question is "Of Exotic Birds and Tragic Lovers", by Phil 
Edinger, in the Fall 1993 issue of ROOTS.

Anner Whitehead
Commercial Source Chairman
Historic Iris Preservation Society
HIPSource@aol.com

 

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