New blooms in the last 6 days:
Heartbeat Away - it would have been a no ID if I did not keep better track of my orders. I bought it from Blue J Iris in 2017; at some point, it ended up with the tag from Street Story. The purple tint to the stigmatic lip (less subtle in person) is unusual, possibly unique?
First bloom on April 27th, another bud opened today.
Next up, on April 29th, was Ice for Brice, another nice space-ager that reminds me of Mesmerizer but lavender that faded somewhat to almost but not quite white
Next, on April 30th, were Kathy Chilton (shade+dew versus sun) and Total Obsession
Next, on May 1st, was Dracula's Kiss. I did not look up photos beforehand so I still expected it to be darker and more of a dark red than a dark purple (still more red than Superstition though). The white markings make it seem even less dark. Sigh, dark red still evades me for now - I had Red Skies, that was nice...
Also on May 1st was Stile Libero
with the most amazing spread of colors (really everything except true blue it seems). It is sadly a single rhizome though
I bought it on eBay and I am not sure it will be easy to find again.
Hypnotizer, also from Blue J Iris, is just starting to open today. It is a single rhizome so it will bloom out most likely as well.
All of these were first time bloomers for me except Kathy Chilton.
I remembered that I ordered keiki paste for my orchids and I am going to see if I can encourage pups to grow on my single rhizome bloomers. It seems like keiki pastes contain mostly cytokinin, probably BAP, and the cytokinin to auxin balance is what helps plants decide between root and shoot growth. Well, if it works for making baby orchids on flower spikes, which are monocots just like irises, perhaps it will work for irises too. At this point, no harm in trying.
