REF: Fragrance (was Rebloom on Radiant Angel)
- Subject: REF: Fragrance (was Rebloom on Radiant Angel)
- From: J* a* C* W*
- Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 17:48:45 -0700
From: "Jeff and Carolyn Walters" <cwalters@digitalpla.net>
Joni in GA writes:
> I was also
> pleasantly surprised at the lemon fragrance that RA had when it opened.
The
> scent only lasted the first day but was amazing! I didn't know Irises had
that
> kind of smell. I had a few that smelled like grapes, and have heard other
> people say the same, but never lemon scented!! It was kind of strange to
lean
> over a yellow flower and actually smell lemon!
Joni,
Ethel Peckham, who edited the 1939 AIS Checklist developed a comprehensive
system to describe floral scents that hybridizers could use to indicate the
fragrance of their creations when they were registered. This system was
employed in the 1939 and '49 Checklists, wherein one can find, besides such
general descriptors as sweet, pleasant, unpleasant, strong, slight, and
none, irises with such aromas as honey locust, grape, vanilla, sweet
william, hyacinth, celery, honeysuckle, wax, linden, spice, bay rum, apple
blossom, lemon, and, no doubt, more besides. Thus, it should be possible to
have a whole garden of fragrance right in your iris beds.
The practice of indicating scent in the registration information was
dropped after the 1940's. I am aware that Louise Smith in Williamsburg, VA
was collecting information on the fragrance of more recent iris cultivars
in the 1980's, but Louise is no longer with us, and I do not know what
became of her data.
Jeff Walters in northern Utah (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
cwalters@digitalpla.net
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