Re: TB: Form of Blossom--Preferences

From: "Julia Rankin" <breckenridge@bnis.net>

Dear Linda,

Is Before the Storm a modern horizontal form?

I am too new to iris to distinguish among the forms -- but its falls do seem
to go outwards, so was "just wondering".


Julia Rankin
Zone 8/9
S. California
breckenridge@bnis.net
-----Original Message-----
From: HIPSource@aol.com <HIPSource@aol.com>
To: iris-talk@onelist.com <iris-talk@onelist.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 10:39 AM
Subject: [iris-talk] TB: Form of Blossom--Preferences


>From: HIPSource@aol.com
>
>Linda Mann wrote.
>
><< This is the form that is my ideal - tall, straight stalk, medium-large
>sized bloom,
> lots of ruffles, waterfall form to the falls (I really REALLY dislike  the
>'modern' horizontal form) >>
>
>I do too. It is certainly suitable for a pert smaller iris that one needs
to
>look down upon anyway, but not for a big TB, I tend to think.
>
>I don't know why some hybridizer's have chosen to go down that particular
>road. It makes for a flower that often looks incompletely open---which it
>probably is-- and the garden effect is much diminished. When combined with
>shorter and more open or upright standards, or those unfortunate standards
>which meet in a rather pyramidal--an ungenerous person might say
pinheaded---
>form, the effect is even less. The blooms may be larger overall, and I
guess a
>lot of them actually are, but the surface area presented to the viewer from
>any angle other than above is much diminished. Nor can it be argued that
they
>show better on the bench, unless you fancy an unobstructed view of the
>reverses and often too-meaty stems.
>
>We have discussed form in blossoms here on several occasions, generally in
>relation to the pros and cons of extra petals, or extra petaloid parts such
as
>found in the Spage Ager bearded irises. I find that most kinds of forms are
>okay with me if they are effective visually in the individual flower under
>consideration. One knows an aesthetically satisfying whole when one sees
it,
>just as one recognizes when something is not right. All people may not
agree
>on each iris, but a consensus is usually there on the stuff which is really
>good.
>
>As I said, this business of  horizontal falls tends to be not very
satisfying
>to my eye. Linda talks of "waterfalls", which I understand to be falls
which
>have a distinct downward flow in the classic manner coupled with the sense
of
>lift and buoyancy of the moderns at the margins. These types are very iris-
>like and always satisfying in the garden or on the show bench. Speaking in
>ballet terms, the dancer in the stiffer short tutu moves quickly around the
>stage and shows a lot of leg and so forth, and she is very very fine with
her
>studied impression of lightness. But the dancer in the long skirt is
grander,
>more mysterious, and more colorful as she floats along in the breeze.
>
>Anner Whitehead
>HIPSource@aol.com
>
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