I had an iris in one of my beds this past season that had stripes on it like a broken pattern on all of its blooms. Someone told me that it was probably a virus in the soil that was causing it. Never got a return reply of what it may be or if it is something I should be concerned about. The plants and rhizomes looked healthy for rest of the year. Any thoughts?

Do you know the name of the cultivar ? Some are noted for doing this. It can be caused by a virus ( the same one that makes those "splotchy" tulips), or ,I think it can also be a "random", or "wild" gene, in the particular cultivar. Another possibility, I suppose, is that the iris is "throwing a sport" (a sport is an abnormal vegative increase, either in color, or "texture" from the original). There is a whole group of these "broken color" iris out there, and some find them neat to grow! Is it just this plant? Or are several different ones involved ". If so, are they in the same bed? If it does it again next season.....I'll trade you for a piece! I kinda' like it! If Lucy chimes in, she no doubt can steer you to some more info on it.....Arlyn

I'm not sure of the cultivar. It was growing in my yard when I bought the house 17 years ago. I was thinking it might be some sort of mutation as it was only this one plant. I'll keep ya posted if it happens again this coming spring. I always liked the color of this iris. Not a real tall one, but it has a sturdy stem and big blooms. Broken colors are pretty cool. I just had 'wizard of odds' bloom for the first time last year. Thanks for the input.

That color could be a chimara (sp?). It usually means that the bud was exposed to cold while forming. See what it does this coming season.

Whatever the reason, that's very cool!!!

And it's a beautiful white Iris to boot!!

Are their viral diseases of Iris?
Ken, over on the Lily forum I learned that Tulip Color Breaking Virus is not soil born as it lives only in plant tissue.

of course there are. Everything has viral dieases

Thank you so much for asking this question and for the answers posted! I hadn't had time to post my pics from last summer's bloom, but Madiera and Pallida both bloomed with the characteristics being discussed above. Madiera came out looking very diploid, and Pallida became mostly white with streaks of blue. I have more pics of them if any one is interested. They looked like "throw backs" to me. The later two photos are what these cultivars looked like in a different location.

Could you have accidentally hit them with overspray of Round-Up?

I looked up and found that there is bearded iris mosaic virus, Iris mild mosaic virus and iris severe mosaic virus which are spread by aphids. Some of the symptoms are the leaves may become light green or yellow flecks and mottles(streaking). Flowers may develop patches of irregular color or breaks in the color. The plant loses vigor or become stunted. If they are infected, they will not recover. Dig them up, burn or bury them and keep aphids under control. I don't think this was my problem as they didn't have any of these symptoms and I never had an aphid problem (knock on wood). It is an isolated bed so I'll keep an eye on them this coming year.

Again, off & on cold weather in the spring when buds are forming can cause the different coloration. Each spring is different, & some plants are more suseptable to cold.

Thanks for all the comments.

In reply to the above responses, I have used round up but not close to these plants. But with the wind in Denver ?? It is a possibility... However beginning in April last year, it got warm early, the spring flowers bloomed then we had two episodes of - 7 degrees below zero about 10 days apart! The daffodils and tulips got hit hard so it wouldn't be too hard to expect the growing iris were also affected.

I will watch these plants closely this year and if they do the same thing, off to the mulch pile they will go!

The pictures of Madiera and the Pallida look like pretty classic examples of the effects of Roundup drift.

I am very familiar with the various virus symptoms in the Liliaceae family (Lilium, Tulipa, etc.) and the Iridaceae family from the bulbous genera. (I've not studied the rhizomatous genera that include bearded iris.) I would be very surprised if there is a difference between viral symptoms in bulbous versus rhizomatous genera in Iridaceae. To my knowledge, there are no viral symptoms shown on this thread at all.

HELP!!!I have had an iris for 25 years. Yellow standards, burgundy rust falls. Gave some to a friend 10 years ago. I t has always looked the same. 2 years ago a crazy thing happened. The 1st bud in each socket of each branch blooms normal. 2nd bud in socket of each branch blooms with yellow streaks on falls. This year my friends started doing the same thing. she has 3 clumps in different parts of the yard. All doing it. this year my very last bloom only had 2 falls and 2 standards.
I have googled till my eyes have crossed to get some info. Any help would be sooo much appreciated!!

Do you have any photos tfmly4? I am curious to see how different the first blooms are to the second.
Unfortunately, I can't offer any explanation but someone in this forum may be able to help out.

The last bloom, with the two standards & two falls sounds like you had a chimera. These happen if the plant is stressed, such as from weather. Did your area have unusual weather this year? Such as a warm period followed by cold weather before the iris bloomed? If your friend is also having these blooms, and lives nearby, then it is likely that the plants have the same stressors. So weather is a likely culprit. Or if you both changed to the same new insecticide (the odds of which aren't high).
Have you had this on any other iris?

A picture would be nice to see. There are some cultivars that...for whatever reason....tend to produce "strange flowers", quite often....usually, as was stated above, because of weather conditions.

ok! thats my peony NOT the iris!! LOL!!! still working on the iris pics!! will try again!!

thank u all for replies! I'm Having hard time getting pics figured out . Have not used this site before.I just erased my message and pics!! LOL! Will try again! just went out to ck for a normal iris flower and found one with 4 falls and a burgundy stripe on yellow standard. these crazy stripes r happening only to this plant out of a 100 different varieties i have. I can understand the cold weather. We did have a cold snap. But this is the only plant affected. no thats not right! Samurai Warrior right next to it had a small pink stripe this yr.on just one flower.. I just want to make sure it's not a virus!!! Otherwise its kinda fun watching to see what happens next. well here go's with the picks again!