Has anyone else seen one of these? Just noted today 11-29-20 in my front yard.

I haven't experienced this personally with my plants, but quite a few growers on the forum here have had oddities like that happen from time to time. Some cultivars are more prone to it than others.

Welcome to the Iris forum, by the way!

I've had it happen to many of mine, and as Joshua said, some are more prone.. They are called "chimeras". Awesome Alex is one that seems to go rogue most often for me... Double beards, extra falls, no standards... It's always fun to see. It's usually just one flower, and the rest are all normal. There have been a couple threads in this forum in the past that you could probably search out. Here are a few examples from my garden.

'Awesome Alex' - 5 falls, no standards


'Stars and Stripes'- one standard, one fall


'Sharp Dressed Man'- double beard

welcome to the iris forum, calgalrrcom.

It looks like that may be "Clarence"....as was already stated, some cultivars are more prone to it, than others, and, "climate stresses' seem to do it, too. Rebloomers often have more "climate stress"....and the late summer / fall is when I see the most "odd balls". And, welcome !

Nice a fused bloom!.... Or some sort of poly bloom? I love it when daylilies do that.

Great find! Never seen an iris do that before.

~ Welcome to the iris forums by the way

Henhouse said:

'Sharp Dressed Man'- double beard

~ Sherry it would be cool to breed irises with a double bearded (fused bloom ) iris to have more of them. But I'm not sure if it would be possible to find double beards on their child plants since these mutations happen accidentally.

calgalrrcom said:Has anyone else seen one of these? Just noted today 11-29-20 in my front yard.

Grace ~ to the Iris Forum!

I get chimeras on Awesome Alex. I will have to check Clarence when it blooms. Thank you for sharing!

Grace

evelyninthegarden said:...I get chimeras on Awesome Alex.

So that's what fused blooms on bearded irises are called, "chimeras".

chi·me·ra
/kīˈmirə,kəˈmirə/
noun: chimera; plural noun: chimeras; noun: chimaera; plural noun: chimaeras
1.
(in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail


2.
a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve.

Chimeras and plants:
https://www.britannica.com/sci...

they may not happen on the same plant every year. often on only the first bud, especially during cold springs here in New England.

took a picture 'clarence' in the garden this morning; looks like 4 falls and 2 standards. must be raining clarence chimeras, or garden fairies sprinkling chimera dust from north carolina to san diego.

shizen said:

took a picture 'clarence' in the garden this morning; looks like 4 falls and 2 standards. must be raining clarence chimeras, or garden fairies sprinkling chimera dust from north carolina to san diego.

Yes...my Clarence is very prone to Chimera's as well!!!

Australis said:I haven't experienced this personally with my plants, but quite a few growers on the forum here have had oddities like that happen from time to time. Some cultivars are more prone to it than others

Clearly I jinxed myself when I said this - for the first time I've had a weird bloom! This is one of the last blooms on the first flowering of a seedling and it has two falls and one standard!

They can be quite pretty:

Quench (image appears more blue than it is in true life):


Dazzling (again, a bit too blue):

I get plenty of chimeras. At least a few a year. If you want the best explanation of these wacky blooms read the wonderful response from hybridizer Paul Black in the quote at the bottom of this message.

Lestv said:I get plenty of chimeras. At least a few a year. If you want the best explanation of these wacky blooms read the wonderful response from hybridizer Paul Black in the quote at the bottom of this message.