Help solve this garden mystery, Please.

This unusual Iris is growing in my garden. I have never knowingly purchased any Iris that was supposed to look like this. My taste in Iris runs to bold colors, so I'm sure that I wouldn't have intentionally ordered this.

I can't even tell what kind of an Iris this is. Does anyone know what type of Iris this is? This was the 2nd year for it in my garden. It is about 25 to 27" tall. I suspect that it came from either a co-op or an Ebay purchase. It's name tag's ink faded to unreadable. Thanks

Looks like bearded that has gotten hit with either roundup or by the big temp change.

Notice 6 petals and the beard.

The foliage says Bearded as well

Hope this helps

D

Thanks Dee. The petals on it are less than an inch wide. I've never used any Roundup near it. The blooms last year looked the same too. I think it's supposed to look this way. There are two normal looking TB Iris growing on either side of it and they are just fine. The petals are also upturned on the ends. I've never seen that on a TB, but I am not very knowlegeable about all of the different types of Iris.

Did you mean a temperature change like an unusually cold winter or it's having relocated from the PNW to the MidAtlantic. It did experience both of those.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2010 4:29 PM

I'm really confused by this one. It looks like it has six falls, all the same pattern.

I'm going to ask Todd and Boojum to take a look.

It is certainly not a bearded....I'd say it's a virginica.......looks something like Dottie's Double.

I am not familiar with that species Todd so thank you for jumping in as never want to intentionly give the incorrect information

D

No, definitely not a bearded. I'm confused too, Dee, because of the six identical falls. But it makes sense that it might be a double since the 6 falls are all patterned.

Not much info out there about Dotties Double, but it sure looks possible.

Thanks Todd.

Todd, Thank you. Would this be a hybridized variety?

This Dottie's Double is very similar to my Iris. The differences, besides the color pattern are that the petals on mine are shaped differently. Mine are the same width from beginning to end as opposed to the tear dropped shape of those of Dottie's Double. Also The petals on Dottie's Double droop downward, unlike mine.

http://www.signa.org/index.pl?Display+Iris-virginica+9

This one is actually more like mine than Dottie's Double. I have to laugh where it says that it must be kept moist. It is growing in the driest, most wind swept place possible under two Maples along side a road with 50 MPH road wind..

http://www.signa.org/index.pl?Display+Iris-virginica+12

I tried that too, Mary, and the SIGNA website goes to another page.

But don't discount Dottie's Double based on that. My virginicas sometimes turn up more at the ends, and also they are fuller than other times.

Boojum is doing some checking also.

Maybe you have something unique. Maybe even rare. Maybe worth millions, and millions, LOL. We can only hope.

That's why I asked you to post it here. I had an idea what family it was in, but never considered it might be a double. I'm quite sure Todd's on the right track. He usually is, our Todd.

SIGNA website always reverts to Iris attica. Which iris were you looking at Mary?

LOL, Polly! I'll share some of my millions with you! How about a cruise down the Amazon followed by one down the Nile?

I think it was the second category of Iris virginica (variations) and it was the one called Alba.

You're on! And we can buy lots of new irises.

Iris virginica has standards that are the same length as the falls, so it would have three standards and three falls that would be the same length. But yours almost looks like it has six falls, as they are all marked alike. .Usually the standards and the falls are marked differently, with the standards having very small if any markings. Here's a picture of a normal virginica.

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/iris/blueflag/images/iris_virginica_virginica_lg.jpg

The petals with the markings on them are falls, the ones without are standards, so see how yours in comparison looks like it has six falls.

And yours does appear to have the hairs that sit on the signal, which is a characteristic of virginica.

Polly, Thanks. On the Signa site, under Iris virginica, it's the last one, #12 of 12. The colors are different, but the form is pretty close.

I went to see it. Yes, the form is very close. I think we have pretty much determined it's a virginica then, and if we could determine if it's a named cultivar, all the better.

Do you have any virginicas in your garden?

No. Although I put in quite a few new Iris this year, so who knows?

How long have you had it?

At least I know it's not one you bought from me, wouldn't that make me red faced, LOL.

I planted it in the fall of 2007. No, it doesn't even closely resemble a JL. Yours are all planted together in a completely different bed.

I only have 1 other Iris that is not a TB, SDB, Siberian or JL and that's this one, which I bought just because I liked the foliage.

Cool, Dark Aura? Purple Fan? Gerald Darby? One I don't know of?

Gerald Darby.

Aha! Gerald is a robusta, a cross between virginica and versicolor.

Well, I hope that Robusta blooms this year. It will be year 3, no bloom so far. I have never seen anyone in this area growing flag or spuria, versicolor or Louisiana iris.

I grow Gerald Darby, and it flowers prolifically. Give it a little more water, and a lot of fertilizer. Treat it like the Japanese.

Well, obviously it's not the parent of the UK, if it hasn't flowered yet. I thought we might be on to something.

Here's Gerald. It is unique for the spring leaves. Dark Aura is another one, and it's flower stems are almost black.

Dark Aura

Well, maybe I'll see them in the spring. That Dark Aura is neat.

Referring back to the unknown, here is a pic of my Dottie's Double. No doubt the mystery is a virginica of some sort. Dottie's Double often has deformed flowers among the better looking ones. In this cultivar the standards look like falls, hence the 6 fall-no standard look to the flowers. I've never tried sowing selfed Dotties Double....I expect the offspring may revery back to normal virginica but I daresay some would show variations on the 6-falls...maybe the mystery plant is a Dotties Double offspring.

BTW, I crossed Dotties Double to Iris versicolor 'Kermisina' (forming a X robusta) and all the offspring looked like versicolor but had the colour of the Dotties Double....the 6-falls aspect did not pass on to the offspring.

I wonder if D.Double would have to be selfed to get the 6 falls. pollen? A friend has a double I. cristata which will be introduced through Joe Pye Weed this yr. Dottie's Double didn't want to grow for us & we lost it some years ago.

Looking at Todd's plant side by side with mine, they do have many similarities. Maybe if I had taken the photo a few days later, the falls on mine may have dropped and not had the upturned appearance. The color pattern would still be different though as well as the absence of an enlargement of the falls at the ends on mine.

Unless an Iris virginica can cross with a TB, there would be nothing else on any of the surrounding properties that it could cross with. It must have happened before it came to live in my garden.

I looked more closely at the unknown picture...I never really noticed the beard...DD and virginica have no beards at all.....now I'm not so sure what you have! DD cannot cross to a bearded. Your mystery is what we call a peloric form. The standards have become fall-like...what you need to imagine is your iris with three normal falls and three upright standards and a central beard...hhmmmmm. The falls are more narrow than any bearded I've seen. Is there a thick rhizome like a regular bearded or is the habit clumping like the beardless types?

Hi All diffenately bearded and do not discount a herbicide damage

Todd, I planted it at the same time as some TB's. I had the TB's all grouped together in one container and was filling in spots where the voles had eaten some. I'm sure this was sent to me in error as I would not have ordered anything like it color wise. I didn't notice anythng odd about the rhizome. The falls are less than 3/4 inch wide and their straight tubular shape kept me from being able to match it up with any photos, especially those curled up ends.

When I studied your photo, I couldn't see a raised beard, but thought that was due to the angle of the shot. I'm sure that if it had roots like a Siberian, I would have noticed. I'm not familiar with the rhizomes of other types of Iris as I don't grow them.

I didn't look into any info about this Iris after it's first bloom as sometimes plants look strange, or unusual in their first growing season. When it came up the second year looking just the same, I started to think it was not a TB. But the foliage looked like TB to me.

This is ANVIL OF DARKNESS

Avmoran, it has definitely not encountered any herbicide since it's been here the past two years. I rarely use an herbicide inside of one of my beds. The closest bed edge to this Iris is a sidewalk and I wouldn't have used an herbicide out there, which is about 7' away. I know there could be drift from a spray, but I did not use any over there.

after herbicide which can move away from an area sprayed if there is rain

Yes, that sure doesn't look like 'Anvil', lucily no extra flower parts. Does the mystery plant look the same every yr?

Yes, it has. The only herbicides that I use are Roundup, Weedbgone and Sedgehammer. The latter two would have never been used in that bed.

I have an Oriental Lily that suffered damage from Roundup. The damage is not uniform. I've also seen a Keffir Lily and a daylily that have deformities from Roundup. Those were planted in another bed that had a thistle invasion.This iris is perfectly formed and appears very healthy. There are no breaks in the color or ripples in the bloom's tissue. The foliage shows no signs of distortion.

I've never sprayed Roundup after the first year that I've been here, after seeing the damage to those 3 plants. For the last three years, I've used a sponge directly on plants to apply the roundup. Could it have traveled through the ground by rain? Maybe, but it would have to travel pretty far. There are no other plants nearby with any distortions.

Sounds like it developed on its own.

It could be that someone created a cross and grows it, but when digging the rhizome to fill my order, just dug the wrong one. But I don't know enough about Iris to know what two types mixed together could create a plant like this.