Little Freesia viridis is in bloom this morning, and it’s teaching me an interesting lesson. In the Eranthis ‘Guinea Gold’ thread, several commentators have mentioned that ‘Guinea Gold’ was said to have bronze-colored foliage. I went out and checked my ‘Guinea Gold’ (which one side of me wants very much to be true to name), and the best I can do with the foliage I saw was to describe some of it as perhaps olive green. Bronze is sometimes described as yellowish-brown, and that’s close to olive green. Does that mean that my plant is true to name? It’s easy to have doubts, especially when there is a lacuna in the tradition (or a lapsus on the label), and given all of the monkey business going on, it’s good to have doubts. But it’s also good to have a broad perspective in order to be aware of what the possibilities are. When Freesia viridis bloomed last year, the flowers were chartreuse green. The base of the flower was paler green, the sort of color seen in Gladiolus tristis. The distal third of the flower was greener. This year’s flowers are different. The distal portions of the flower are as green as those seen last year, but the basal two thirds of the flower is maroon. This makes a very handsome color contrast. I’ve uploaded images to the wiki so you can see this difference. Take a look at: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I have only one plant of Freesia viridis: in other words, chameleon-like this plant has changed its colors from one year to the next. The plant grows in a protected cold frame. I call this one, in the tradition of all the great nomina nuda (not to be confused with nominal nudists), Freesia viridis var. inconstans forma aphidophora. : ) In a related post, Debbi expressed her admiration (which I enthusiastically share) of Janis Ruksans, and went on to say that if Ruksans says he has never seen a bulb of ‘Guinea Gold’, then she’ll believe him. If he said that, then I’ll believe it, too. But if it’s true, I’m inclined to say that it brings into doubt his qualifications for speaking with authority on the identity of the plant. I think it would behoove us to be more interested in the opinions of those whose connections with the real plant are more certain. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7, where Dracunculus vulgaris is over a foot out of the ground. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/