Featured Bearded Iris: Eleanor Roosevelt. 5.7.19

Bearded Iris Eleanor Roosevelt.  5.7.19

Eleanor Roosevelt was released in 1936.  From the link above - Historic Iris Society, quoted from Cooley's Garden Catalog:

From the Cooley’s Gardens catalog for 1937: “Deep fluorite purple self, with very rich falls. The opening flower is almost black, and the heavy blue beard tends to increase the depth of color. This is the leading fall-blooming iris in commerce today, because it increases very fast, is most reliable in flowering habit, and is one of the most beautiful irises in the garden regardless of its added value as a rebloomer.”

I've had this iris for a number of years.  This clump got buried when I decommissioned the raised bed, but survived and grew up,throughgh 6 inches of soil.  I transplanted it, and here js one of the rhizomes blooming after only one year. Less, really.  About 9 months.

I will be sure to relabel this clump and move it to a more prime location, now that it is identified.

I enjoy that description, " Deep fluorite purple".

Eleanor Roosevelt is a smaller variety, which can rebloom and has done so for me.

What's blooming? 4.11.16

Most of the apples are finishing blooming. The Prairie Fire Crabapple, now in 3rd leaf, is looking great. Most branches are above deer browsing height. This tree puts on a real show and appears problem free, so far. The earliest bearded irises are blooming. This means, blue colors and smaller size, in my collection. They look the best since planting 4 years ago. The house came with a gigantic lilac bush. It needed some renovation, cutting out old dead trunks and a little thinning. It has responded with a big show this year.

I started carefully collecting pollen from the one pawpaw flower at the pollen shedding stage, and transferring pollen to flowers that appear to be at a receptive stage.  The stigmas are receptive before pollen is shed, and when pollen is shed the stigmas are no longer receptive.  With down-facing flowers on small trees, it's tricky.  The variety "Sunflower" is clearly first, but has flowers at many stages.  I transferred pollen both to earlier stage "Sunflower" flowers, and to earlier stage "NC-1" flowers.

Flowers of "Prairie Fire" Crabapple.  4.11.16

Crabapple "Prairie Fire".  4.11.16

Giant old lilac bush.  4.11.16

Lilac Flowers.  4.11.16

Iris "Eleanor Rooseveldt".  4.11.16

Iris germanica  4.11.16

Pawpaw flower with pollen.  4.11.16

More Heritage Iris

Second order came today from Old House Gardens. Website oldhousegardens.comEleanor Roosevelt. Introduced in 1933. From the Heritage Iris Preservation Society web site, quoting an earlier Cooley's Iris catalog: "From the Cooley's Gardens catalog for 1937: "Deep flourite purple self, with very rich falls". Flourite purple. Cool! This is described in 1937 as the " leading fall-blooming iris in commerce today, because it increases very fast, is most reliable in flowering habit...one of the most beautiful irises in the garden... " Mme. Chereau. 1844. This description, quoted from the Heritage Iris Preservation Society site, hips-roots.com, is great: "From the Cornell Extension Bulletin 112 (1925): "Color effect a lavender-white plicata. S. White bordered hortense violet, beautifully ruffled. F. white, with deeper hortense violet, slightly purplish tinged plications." Who would have thought, "hortense violet"? Mrs. Horace Darwin. 1888. Horace Darwin was a son of Charles Darwin. I guess in those days, some flowers were named for women without actually using the woman's name. In this case, from wikipedia, Mrs. Horace Darwin was " Emma Cecilia "Ida" Farrer (1854–1946), daughter of Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer in January 1880, later Lady Ida Darwin". Then again, she got a flower named after her. . Shannopin. 1940. All photos are via the Old House Gardens website, linked above. These went into the iris raised bed. There were other plants occupying the spots where I wanted to place these. Some simple transplanting was done.