Post your pics, Jamie. It'll help us figure out what might be going on.

Have you or any of your neighbors sprayed an herbicide (RoundUp or the like) anywhere near the iris plantings where the irises may have caught some drift? That will definitely cause stunting and distortion of the blooms. So will late freezes or wild temp swings during stalk development.

Laurie

Thanks Laurie

No chemicals in this yard! I try very hard not to use any pesticides as I grow alot for the birds and butterflies and such. I have an acre of land that is very private and fenced by trees, so it is doubtful I would get any drift of it- especially at the bottom of this hill.

We did have some absolutely CRAZY temps here in NJ. all winter was mild- we had warm spring like days in February and then a few days of winter, followed by warm again- and it has been off and on ever since.. so it definatley ould be that.. but it seems odd to me that it would only be this ONE iris affected. all the rest are normal. it also seems to be bloomig prematurely! Nothing here is in bloom yet! it's nuts. My daffodils are still up and strong..

I will try to take a pic today at lunch hour. Thanks so much for responding. This hill is actually a "burm" of cruddy soil that they built up when they made the road that goes along side my house. and my property is on an old railroad bed. I find car parts and mattress springs in that hill sometimes..! I wonder if it is planted over some kind of junk that would affect it?.... thoughts?

doenst my place sound lovely ? hahah

Well, there's no telling what that iris might be sucking out of your soil. Have you tried having a soil test run on a sample from that exact spot? There certainly are irises that are a LOT more susceptible to damage from environmental factors than others. Perhaps your little weirdo is the highly sensitive type.

It's also possible that the weirdo is a different iris altogether than the others you acquired from the same garden. Folks frequently think their irises have "changed" somehow when actually it's two different irises. One dominant iris overtakes the bed and is the only one to bloom for years until the weaker iris finally manages to suck up enough nutrition to bloom amidst the dominant clump. Perhaps your friend's mother has a miniature dwarf bearded growing with her tall beardeds that she lost track of and forgot about, and perhaps it is that MDB that is blooming in your garden now. MDBs do bloom quite a bit earlier in the season than the tall beardeds.

Just a few possibilities.

Laurie

Yes- I thought maybe it might be a MDB, but it's not pretty! do MDBs look like they shoulndt be that short? maybe I'll just move it if it's an MDB- to some place it can be better appreciated. I will test the soil around it.. I just dont think it should look this way- and the blooms die in a day or too.

Lets see if I can attach the picture I just took....

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1019518}}

It's difficult to tell scale from that shot, and it's difficult to tell exactly what the bloom looks like from that angle. Are my eyes correctly interpreting a branch on that stalk? If so, I'd hazard a guess that your iris is an SDB (MDBs don't branch). There are a number of SDBs with that color combination - lavender standards and tan falls. One of the most widely grown is a rebloomer named What Again (which would explain your bloom late last summer).

Take a few more shots, please, from different angles, and hopefully closer up.

Laurie

If it is a SDB that would explain the fact that its blooming now..My SDB's always bloom before my tall bearded.

littlebit

Thanks guys. I went outside and actually Laurie is right, it has two flowers branched from one stem.. so I guess it is not an MDB like she says, but an SDB! and possibly a rebloomer which explains my confusion. I think I will move it to a place with nicer soil and where it wont get lost in a hillside of other things... perhaps I will enjoy it for what it is that way :)

and it is blooming before my tall beardeds! well, I think you guys solved the mystery. The blooms really didnt las tlong- but the whether has really been crazy- which culd have made it shorter than it shoudl be or made the blooms die quicker.

You're very helpful- thank you to both of you who responded!

I guess we all have different tastes in plants and flowers, and a good thing too :-)
Your little SDB looks very healthy, and i can't see any problem with the colour. It does look somewhat like "What Again". I guess if you were expecting a big and blousy tall bearded iris, you would be confused, but I don't think there is anything ugly or demented about your little bloom.
Iris blooms normally do not last very long. Your friend's memory of how her mothers irises appear may be confused, by seeing subsequent blooms, and thinking they are all the same bloom. Tall bearded iris will produce more blooms per stem, but Dwarf bearded usually produce many more stems per clump and you will most likely have a lovely show of blooms if you leave your little plants where they are for another year or 2.
Cheers, Jan

Any chance I could get a rhizome off of this strange iris?