Let the Iris Buyer Beware

By Bryce Williamson 

There is an old Latin saying, caveat emptor, meaning "let the buyer beware." This phrase reminds us that the buyer assumes risk that a product may fail to meet expectations or have defects. This certainly applies when buying irises, or any plant in general. For that reason, this post will have only one image. It is an image that I detest, though it appears every once in a while usually with one of two comments: "It is real?" or, "Where can I buy this iris?"

This image has been manipulated in a computer to alter the flower's appearence

For the record, the answer to either question is “no.” No iris of this color exists─it is a classic example of a “Photoshopped” or computer-manipulated image. Hybridizers would die and go to iris heaven to have a flower of this color. I’ve seen this non-iris offered for as little as $5.00 per plant. Sellers were not only located in the United States of America, but also in many other countries around the world. If you order it, and if it arrives (a very big if), and if it finally blooms, you WILL be disappointed.

Which leads me to another “let the buyer beware” issue that often is a topic on iris sites: Does the iris live up to its picture? The answer to that question is a bit complicated. First, buyers should be aware that images always approximate the flower you will see when the plant blooms. No matter how hard a nursery tries, there are too many factors that affect flower color when it blooms in the garden. These factors include cultural conditions, like soil pH. There are also numerous variables which affect image color when physically printed or uploaded to the World Wide Web. Long ago I had a color catalogue─a catalogue printed by one of the top Japanese companies─and images would look different year to year when printed from the same color separations. That talk of color separations will tell you that it was in a different century.

However, a savvy iris buyer can do two things to help himself/herself exercise good judgement. First, learn to recognize a computer-manipulated image. I have firsthand experience with a larger grower that uses images which have little to do with the actual plant. The grower advertises ‘Disco Music,’ an iris I hybridized, registered, and introduced in the 1970’s. The plant sold as ‘Disco Music’ by the larger grower is NOT the iris I introduced. I see numerous complaints from gardeners about this firm shipping poor quality stock, sending the wrong plants; and if they bloom, that flowers have no resemblance to the image in the catalogue. I advocate for having the good sense to spend money at a reliable iris grower: the prices are lower and the quality of the plants is better. If you are new to the iris world, you can reach out to a local iris society (listed by region) or the Iris Lovers group on Facebook and ask for recommendations. 

The second thing to consider is how satisfied you were with a prior purchase. If you do buy irises year after year from one grower and find the images rarely look like the flower when it blooms, then quit being foolish and buy elsewhere. This can also work in reverse--one of the highlights of my last two bloom seasons was a new variety that I would never have bought based on the color image.

That brings me to the final points of this tirade. Pay attention to where you buy. Plant materials are, in theory, inspected, which is especially important for plant material moving between countries. There are many horror stories about plant material from outside a country bringing diseases and unwanted insects into the country. 

A tourist returning from Latin America destroyed many ornamental fuchsias by bringing home a cutting that introduced Aculops fuchsiae, commonly known as fuchsia gall mite. It feeds on fuchsia plants, causing distortion of growing shoots and flowers. It is a horticultural pest. Actually pest is not a strong enough term, but I digress.

Southern California is now fighting the Huanglongbing (HLB) disease which is caused by bacteria spread by insects like the Asian citrus psyllid. HLB is fatal to citrus trees and thousands are being destroyed to prevent its spread beyond quarantine boundaries. I fear that sooner or later, some foolish person will buy a citrus tree in Southern California and bring it, and HLB, into Northern California.

Regulations and quarantines are intended to keep our plants as healthy as possible; but they only work if we adhere to them. Recently iris nurseries in Australia, where they have a strict and expensive process for importing irises, have found growers buying from out of the country, circumventing the quarantine protocol, and potentially bringing in new diseases and pests. This isn’t responsible behavior, and consequences could be disastrous (as they have been for fuchsias and citrus).

If customs or the various agricultural agencies find seeds and plants brought into the country without the correct certifications, they destroy those items. When asking for a PayPal refund, try explaining, "I was illegally importing plants/seeds and want my money back."

As I wrap this up, please keep in mind the adage, “let the buyer beware”; and “if is too good to be true, most likely it is not true.” I will now step off my soapbox and go back to trying to figure out how to come up with a turquoise iris the hard way─by making lots of crosses. 

What Rains May Come to Pacific Iris Flowers

Kathleen Sayce

Irises are at an inherent disadvantage in a spring-wet climate, because they have upturned flowers like tulips instead of down-turned flowers like many lilies. Hybridizers in dry spring areas have selected for wide, frilly flowers over the past few decades; usually these plants flower in late winter to mid spring. In spring-wet areas, these flowers are hammered by rain, damaged so badly that pollination cannot occur. 

A modern wide-petaled, frilly Pacific Iris flower on a dry day. This is an unnamed seedling, flowering for the first time this year.  

So what's an irisarian to do with wet weather during flowering?  The answer is to evaluate flowers to see which ones do well, or at least better, in intense rain. Most of us can live with moderate damage, and are happier with a colorful spring flower display that doesn't look like soaked tissue paper was tossed around the garden. 

When it rains during flowering, I take a waterproof camera into the garden and record how well each flower and its plant hold up. Flower shape is important. Stem sturdiness is important; lovely flowers that lay flat on the ground (due to weak stems) are not going to make the cut. Very important is how well the flower survives being battered by rain and wind. Enough rain, and any iris flower can be battered into oblivion, so the following is a first attempt at a weather-tolerance scale.

For this year, the following is the result of rain-on-flower observations in my garden:

Wide frilly flowers often fare badly in heavy rain; they can tolerate light rain. The petals are thin, and a few days of intense rain shreds them to fragments. 

The same unnamed Pacifica Iris seedling following an intense rainstorm. Its wide petals tend to melt in heavy rain. The damage to the falls is not a deer or slug, it's rainfall that tore off portions of the petals. 

Yellow flowers typically melt in heavy rain. Open one day, gone the next. It's quite shocking to see how poorly this color fails to hold up to a good storm. Do any yellows hold up well in rain? I grow four or five, and am going to research this in coming years. One of the yellows has weak stems, and these are battered to the ground in storms. It's toast. 

Another unnamed seedling, a lovely yellow, after a rainstorm. Note the damaged style crests and standards, and melted falls. 

White flowers vary in durability. Some do well. Others melt. Doug' flowers (Iris douglasiana selections and crosses) are at the core of many reliably sturdy hybrids. 'Canyon Snow' is very sturdy for a white flowered Pacifica Iris, and is a Doug' selection. 'Cape Sebastian' is an unregistered Doug' selection with a white flower and purple signal, and it also does well. Both have been available for several decades, and are highly recommended. 

'Canyon Snow' when dry, above, and wet, below. This Doug' selection holds up well in rain with sturdy upright stems and durable flowers. 

Older hybrids have narrower petals and less frilling, and often do surprisingly well in heavy rain. Go back about 20 years, to find these sturdy forms. 'Mission Santa Cruz' and 'Cape Ferrelo', to name two, also do well in intense rain. 

'Harry's Rootbeer' holds up in rain. This hybrid is a 'Mission Santa Cruz' progeny, bred for southern California, which also does well in the Pacific Northwest. 

Species and species crosses often also do well. This includes Iris tenax, I. tenax x I. innominata, I. chrysophylla  x I. douglasiana, and others. Flower petals are sturdy and narrow compared to modern hybrids. Flowers are held upright on strong stems, which rarely flop on the ground in heavy rain. Only I. innominata tends to melt and flop. 

Iris tenax from Lewis County, Washington, does well in rain, as do many Pacifica species. 

I. tenax is usually upright and sturdy, with flowers holding well in all but the most intense rains. No surprise, this species is native to the Pacific Northwest, and flowers latest in my garden. 

From observations made this spring, I know that some yellow flowers melt in heavy rain. I plan to look for and breed for sturdier yellows, and use rain screens to protect plants now. 

For those large frilly flowers, use rain screens. If my climate is consistently wet in mid spring when these ruffled beauties flower, then I have to be ready to lose them. They may be toast as well. 

Older hybrids, in a wide range of colors, do well. Rejoice! Use rain screens over the plants I want seeds from, and enjoy the flowers, rain or shine. The ideal form has strong petals and sturdy upright flower stems. 

As for species, they flower very well, so long as I keep away from yellows. Too bad for me that the yellows are my favorite color. I'm just going to have to get over it. I would like to know if readers have similar observations in wet spring areas. Are there particular colors that rain damages more in your garden? Or flower forms that do not hold up well to your weather?