HIST:TB: Re:HELEN COLLINGWOOD-ID's

From: HIPSource@aol.com

In a message dated 98-10-29 20:41:48 EST, you write:

<< I know this is a common problem, but I have an iris infront of me and 
 have just been comparing it to the HIPS photo of HELEN COLLINGWOOD. It 
 looks identical, except that the standards a slightly deeper in colour,  but
I just picked it and forced the almost opened bud open to compare  the two,
side by side. The other flowers standards faded a bit after  opening.... Are
there other irises that look very much like HC, or is it a safe bet to  give
this one a name tag.>>

Not surprisingly, I wouldn't do that, Jan. 

There are several good "neglectas"--that is, irises which are basically blue
purples with lighter blue purple standards--and it is always better to be sure
than to guess from a photograph. I will tell you this: HELEN COLLINGWOOD is a
pretty distinctive iris and one can in time learn to spot her from a distance,
but this has as much to do with form as it does with color. Her color is
particularly luminous and carrying--more so than a white, strangely-- and it
has that same visual punch that one sees in the "neglecta" pansies called
Imperial Beaconsfield. These might be planted together for a rather studied
but potent effect. Anyway, a bloom on HELEN goes through a period when the
falls look longer as in the photo now showing on the HIPS page, but in her
typical manifestation they look more round, and indeed the silhouette of the
whole bloom is more round.The haft markings are not generally very visible,
either. The standards do tend to lighten a bit after opening. It is often said
that she is "almost an 'amoena' " but I think that is stretching it.

Other characteristics of the beautiful HELEN COLLINGWOOD (Smith '49)---which I
consider one of the great historics and one which certainly should have won
the Dykes---are heavy substance, good branching, some shade tolerance, and
great vigor. If your iris has all the above qualities then you have a great
iris! Your iris may even be HELEN COLLINGWOOD. 

But one should never firmly affix any name to any unknown iris based on
comparison with a photograph, much less a photograph on line, even one of
Mike's.  I'm sorry to sound like such a broken record here, even trailing out
the official HIPS position as I am, but this point must be made and apparently
made often: for confirmation of the identifty of an iris you should find or
obtain a known specimen of  HELEN COLLINGWOOD and look at the blooms side by
side. Until the time that this is possible, you should give the iris a study
name, preferably one that won't take on a life of its own if you give some of
the iris away, something like "Jan's Fine Neglecta." 

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

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