Irises: The Irises of Shadowood Part Deux, 1 by laurief

laurief wrote:
This one has me stumped. Several years ago, I purchased what was supposed to be Little Black Belt (dark purple) from Sutton's. Last year it maiden bloomed looking very much like Auroralita (yellow plic). I sent pics to Sutton's, and they thought it might be Auroralita, so I requested that they send me a piece of Auroralita in lieu of replacing it with Little Black Belt so that I could grow the not LBB side by side with Auroralita and see if that's what it really is. So this spring they are both blooming and they look very much alike. HOWEVER, not LBB bloomed TEN DAYS earlier than Auroralita, and they're planted only 1' apart! They were also both planted into that bed last summer. The only difference is that not LBB was transplanted as a small clump from another part of my iris beds and has been here long enough to be fully acclimated to my growing conditions, while Auroralita moved here as a single rz from CA last summer. Do you suppose that the lack of acclimation to this climate could have caused the ten day delay in bloom on Auroralita? Should I assume these are the same cv just because they look alike in spite of the difference in bloom commencement?

BTW, I LOVE this SDB! At least I LOVE my not LBB version. It is incredibly vigorous and floriferous. Really quite impressive in the garden.

Auroralita, SDB