My iris bed is in full bloom. Blossoms were yellow last year now they
are blue. What causes this and will they be blue again next year?

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
My iris bed is in full bloom. Blossoms were yellow last year now they
are blue. What causes this and will they be blue again next year?

Some iris can behave like hydrangea, their blooms can change color with soil
pH...have you added anything, mulch, new plants nearby?

On 4/27/2009 4:31 PM, Phisherman wrote:
My iris bed is in full bloom. Blossoms were yellow last year now they
are blue. What causes this and will they be blue again next year?

If this happened in my garden -- five different varieties of bearded
iris -- I would suspect that I mixed up two varieties when I divided
them last year. While the colors of bearded iris might become more or
less vivid depending on weather, water, and nutrients, they do not show
such substantial changes as you describe.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:47:56 GMT, "brooklyn1"
wrote:


"Phisherman" wrote in message
.. .
My iris bed is in full bloom. Blossoms were yellow last year now they
are blue. What causes this and will they be blue again next year?

Some iris can behave like hydrangea, their blooms can change color with soil
pH...have you added anything, mulch, new plants nearby?


My neighbor has purple iris, about 60 feet away, so I was not sure if
the color change was due to that(?). The iris are growing with
daffodils in round bed surrounded by tall fescue grass. My neighbor
has deep purple iris, about 60-80 feet away. The bed may have got
some lawn fertilizer, but if not neutral the soil may be slightly
acidic (I'll test it today), no mulch, no new nearby plants. Light
blue is not a favorite color, but glad to see them blooming well.

Hiked to Emery Gap Falls in the Cumberland mountains this morning and
saw thousands of wild iris in bloom. I noticed slight color changes
from one location to another, some having yellow centers, others
white, but all were blue. Darker blues where there were open
canopies, and pale blues in shadier areas. Every wild iris looked
like a miniature to what is in my garden.

You have a mix like I have - the blue irises bloom first, then the
yellow. When I thin a bed, it takes longer for the blue irises to
bloom again by a couple of years. So when I last thinned the be, I
had yellow irises the next year and blue irises two years later.

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:31:38 -0400, Phisherman
wrote:

My iris bed is in full bloom. Blossoms were yellow last year now they
are blue. What causes this and will they be blue again next year?

To reply to my own response - my blue irises are done, and the yellow
are starting to bloom.



On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:35:54 -0400, Fran
wrote:

You have a mix like I have - the blue irises bloom first, then the
yellow. When I thin a bed, it takes longer for the blue irises to
bloom again by a couple of years. So when I last thinned the be, I
had yellow irises the next year and blue irises two years later.

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:31:38 -0400, Phisherman
wrote:

My iris bed is in full bloom. Blossoms were yellow last year now they
are blue. What causes this and will they be blue again next year?