Hi everyone, thank you for letting me join the forum.
I love irises but for some reasons I can't seem to grow any colors but white. I was given pure purple and purple with yellow in two separate years. The buds always came out just a little purple then everything turned white once it's fully bloomed. I have done a fair share of Googling on this topic. Most people suggested irises turned white because the colored irises died and the growing spot got taken over by white irises nearby. This might be true to some but the theory doesn't quite fit my scenario.
My first attempt was with Siberian irises, given to me two years ago. They were dark purple in their original garden. They came out in my garden last spring, so pale that they looked almost white. I reckoned I must have gotten the wrong batch.
Last fall, I received some bearded irises from another source. The colors were dark purple with bright yellow. I planted them far away from the Siberian irises, a location where no irises had ever touched. This spring, they came out pale purple then turned white once fully bloomed. The thought of my extremely alkaline soil being the culprit did cross my mind. But again, I had one of them in a pot of store bought potting soil, same thing happened to it... pale purple emerged then turned ghostly white.
I am at lost. Any ideas or suggestions?
