Iris--TOW

Rodger Whitlock totototo@pacificcoast.net
Sun, 14 Mar 2004 15:47:16 PST
On 10 Mar 04 at 18:26, Jane McGary wrote:

> Rodger Whitlock wrote,
> I. lazica is a good doer: I have enormous clumps that were planted
> >out 15 years ago and have done well even in conditions of not-very-
> >good winter drainage. Unfortunately, it is an unkempt plant not
> >suitable for the more carefully groomed gardens. Moreover, the
> >rather washy flowers appear at a time when much else is flowering; I
> >cannot place it in the front rank of iris species.
> 
> I must have a different form, or it is responding differently to the
> colder weather here than in the Victoria area. It is a pretty tidy
> evergreen with little dieback, forming a compact clump, and the
> flowers on mine, which I bought many years ago from Avon Bulbs in
> England, are a fairly bright violet. They are, however, well down in
> the foliage, and show up well only when a lot of them are open and
> not devoured by slugs.

I am amused to read that you got yours from the same place I got 
mine! But the flowers on mine would be better described as "washy 
mauve", and the clumps are anything but compact. They remind me of 
teenagers with long semi-ungroomed hair -- a little bratty, but 
beloved by those close to them. The unkemptness is a byproduct of the 
evergreenness; perhaps they would look better if given a haircut once 
a year. Not much dieback, but enough to make it out of place in a 
garden more groomed than mine.

Mine agree with yours in having the flowers down in the foliage.

I do (or did) have a seedling I. lazica with a good dark purple
flower. I'll have to toddle out today and see if it's still among
the living.


-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island


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