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Hyacinth Plant

Q.Siberian Irises return

Zone The Colony, TX 75056 | MaryMcNeill added on April 18, 2017 | Answered

Last year, I reported my white Siberian Irises had changed to vibrant summer yellow. I received this response:
Iris do not change color, but growing conditions can make colors more or less vibrant.
Over spray of a herbicide have been reported to change colors temporarily.
Iris can actually drop seed and sprout new flowers that may not be true to the parent flower due to bee pollination from other iris color.
It is reported that their are a few varieties that will ‘sport’ and new color.
The variety Honorabile has a history of this rare event.
It is also possible that a garden area had previous rhizomes and you had original yellow Iris that had never bloomed until they were lifted and moved.

This year I have a patch about 3 feet around filled with nothing but vibrant summer yellow irises, so maybe they “sported”? When I have moved them to other parts of the yard, they stay white.
Mary

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MaryMcNeill
Answered on April 20, 2017

Thank you for your quick response! It's puzzling because these flowers were in my flowerbed from 1992, and in my mother-in-law's flowerbed for eons before that. I moved them to our new house 17 years ago, and they have always (for both of us) bloomed white. I moved a few last year and suddenly they are not white but yellow. I have moved some others and we will see next year what color they are. If it's flag yellow, it's well contained now, and must have been dormant for many many years? And yes, I believe the original flowers were from Louisiana, so it's certainly possible to have a dormant variety that suddenly awoke?

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Downtoearthdigs
Answered on April 20, 2017

I think you somehow had Yellow Flag Iris seed in your garden.

Yellow Flag Iris are very aggressive and will easily choke out your white or any other color.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/bulbs/iris/yellow-flag-iris-control.htm

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