This is Awesome Alex with 4 falls and no standards! The other bloom on the same rhizome is normal.

Did you get anything odd in your iris blooms this year?

Oreo

Evelyn - Awesome Alex always produces chimera. It is very prone to them. Fortunately it is a very good bloomer so you can enjoy the odd ones and still have good blooms too.

Yes, I've gotten flowers with four falls, two falls, two standards, and even one with two beards on one fall! It seems to happen at the beginning of the season or at the end of the season, at least in my garden. I remember that Mesmerizer produced some chimeras, but other cultivars did, too.

One of the blooms on my 'Awesome Alex' this year.. amusing


I had quite a few chimeras this year, but only took pictures of a few.. This one on 'Devil's Riot' was pretty good.

I had one polymerous bloom (4 falls, 4 standards) on 'Katniss'.

Every one of my supposedly 'Blue Fin' blooms (one stalk was all I had) had 3 falls, and NO standards.

Does anyone know what causes these things to happen? And that some irises are more prone to giving more or less what should be blooming?

It is one thing to have a "flattie", that has been bred to do so, and another thing to have one kind of of bloom and then a different one on the very same stalk!