Crazy question..do Iris change colors?

I know this sounds like a stupid question but do Iris change blooming colors ? I've never know it to happen with Iris I planted before at my former home but last year all these Iris bulbs that were yellow bloomed. Neither my husband or I remember ordering any Iris bulbs since we moved here 5 yrs. ago. I remember digging up some from another bed but they were purples and I recall sending them to somebody in Ga. We transplanted some of the purples into the flowerbed by garage probably the second or third year we were here, and last year we had very few purples.
Another mystery!

NEVER will iris change color! What happens either a clump has over taken another clump or a seed pod was allowed to develop and it took over. Iris are set the minute they develop a seed and never change.

One way to think about this is do people change color?

Hope this helps

D

Actually there is a rare occurance when an Iris will mutate. It is called a sport. This year I had City Slicker mutate so that the standards were the same color as the falls, rather than yellow. I don't have any irises that are that color. A sport can be introduced as a new variety if it is worthy. In my case, I think not.

That is very rare.

D

This is an old thread about the subject of irises changing.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/989104

Dee is absolutely correct. It is extremely rare for an iris to have a sport, and you sure would not get a whole bed of them the same color. I would think the vigorous yellow iris snuck in with some of the purple ones, and has increased the fastest.

One of my English Charm Iris developed an extra fall in 2009. I purchased the original rhizome from Shreiner. Other divisions that bloomed did not have the extra fall. Will be interesting to see if it will bloom normal or with an extra fall again this year.

Edited for spelling

This message was edited May 4, 2010 9:05 AM

That is caused by temp...I had Zap and SDB with 6 falls 6 beards and 5 standards this year...LOL fun to see.

D

D,
If temperature, wouldn't all my 169 varieties do the same thing?

They would all have to be at the exact point in development and on the medians it will happen a little more, since they are closer to the soil.

Since they have started blooming I have had one or two of multiply petaled in about 1/16th of all the blooms.

It is a dip and up in the temp, and not all iris are apt to do it anyway.

I love to take pictures of them just for fun. Enjoy

D hope this helped

I pulled a couple of seedlings which did that, left introduced plants, although will get rid of those if they seem to do so every yr. If they do have pollen, can be an extra source if you trust them.

I do have one that is called Changling, that does change as it ages.