Irises - Historic Iris Preservation Society

OTHER JUNO SPECIES 21
is scarcely so pleasing, for the combination of reddishpurple
and grey does not produce a brilliant colour.
Before sindjarensis and its
hybrids are over, the
brilliant 7. Rosenbachiana from Turkestan should be in
flower. It is
unfortunately rarely seen, and as its price
is rising, it is presumably difficult to keep even in Holland.
Early in March there appear through the bare ground
broad, pale nipple-shaped shoots which soon show the
tips of the green leaves ;
then in a day or two, if the
weather is at all warm or sunny, up shoots the flower on
a long 4-inch perianth tube. It is usually some combination
of white, crimson, and gold, but this is a very
variable Iris, and some more recently discovered forms
have a very wide range of colours. Each bulb may
produce as many
as three flowers in succession.
Shortly after this, the white form of 7. orchioides usually
opens, closely followed by ccerulea and sulphurea. Why
the colour varieties should usually bloom in advance of the
golden-yellow type it is difficult to see, but this has been
the experience of some years' cultivation. Each of these,
when well grown, produces five or six flowers, which open
in succession down the foot-high stem. Simultaneously
we may expect to see the brilliantly coloured 7. Warleyensis
of
deep purple with a yellow central patch, blue crest, and
pale edges to the falls, and the more delicately coloured
7. Willmottiana, with its
deep lavender flowers, conspicuously
blotched with white and broad, glistening
deep green.
leaves of
Lastly, and perhaps most beautiful of all, comes 7.
bucharica from Bokhara, with creamy-white flowers with
clear golden-yellow tips to the broad falls. This grows