Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Winter Blues

In the winter, my mind turns to the blues... not sad blues, but blue flowers, waving in the warm breezes of June. When the cold settles in for a stay, I'm not a hard sell for most any plant that I don't have, but I'm a complete chump for anything seen in the flower catalogues that is blue. The new Heronswood catalogue (I know, Burpee-Heronswood) shows Iris collettii, a rare iris which was collected "on the moist meadows of the Zhongdien Plateau of China in 2000". While it's described as being light violet blue, it's catalogue picture shows a deep, gentian blue iris with bright golden beards, and it is described as being "deliciously fragrant". Well, of course, at that point I was like a bluegill after a worm, but maybe, just maybe, I'm developing a little garden temperance, with age: I actually spent some time looking up this plant before digging out the plastic. First of all, while Heronswood says it's hardy to zone 5, I note that it is also native to Burma, Vietnam, and India; while a quick search didn't reveal anybody else commenting on collettii's hardiness, these areas of the world would not seem to have a lot of similarity to my back woods. Secondly, another grower describes it as "having no perfume to my nose"; since I have a sense of smell only slightly better than a block of wood, this would not engender much hope in me that this flower would be delighting my olfactory senses. Third, all the other pictures of this flower show a pretty standard blueish-purple flower. The deal-killer though, is that others describe its flowering with the dreaded word "fleeting". It seems its flowers only last a day, and the pictures don't seem to show a ton of buds like you might see, for example on a daylily.
However, if we go to page 22 of the Heronswood catalogue, they are offering the Asian version of our native blue cohosh, covered with dusty, Delft-blue berries...
(If you're wondering, the picture at the top is of a clump of Japanese Iris blooming in June in Shaw's Garden in St. Louis.) Posted by Picasa

Comments:
Yes iris are very great flowers for gardens. i got information on growing and about iris from this site Iris
 
I admire your restraint to do some further investigation before you get a new plant. I think that is something gardeners learn over time, over and over again. We can be so easily seduced by the pictures and words in catalogs...
 
Anony... for some reason, your link doesn't work for me (not that I need any further temptation to buy more irises).

Carol... I have flashes of actual restraint.
don
 
Grr. How low will Burpee sink?
Evil, evil Burpee. Lying is NOT NICE.

Sounds like they are trying to compete with Michigan Bulb. Huh.
 
As an East Coast person, I'm happy that Heronswood moved

out this way. It's allowed for me to go to the East Coast

opens now. The last one was very good. Nice article here

talks about the last one. Picked up some nice hellebores.

http://www.mcall.com/features/custom/hg/garden/nurseries/al

l-gardenstopshops0427.5817119apr27,0,2361228.story

Future Opens
http://www.heronswood.com/openevents.asp
 
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