Dusky Challenger question

15 years ago

I divided a very overcrowded iris bed a couple of years ago, it had stopped blooming completely. I gave away tons of iris, kept a lot & replanted. They have slowly started blooming. This one bloomed today, looks like my Dusky Challenger, but the bloom is HUGE. DC isn't that big anywhere else. Maybe I got something else, for the longest time I kept a list of names everything I have every bought, but started tossing when I decided they were completely lost. I've had Before the Storm & Hello Darkness, are the flowers of either of these larger than Dusky Challenger? It may be hard to tell, but my hands are stretched out, & I got big hands :) Other DC are maybe 4" top to bottom.

{{gwi:1021495}}

Last year I got only heirloom yellows & peach iris blooming, this year I have some more interesting ones that I had given up for lost. A couple I don't remember ever having :) One turned up that I've had probably 10 years, Peach Jam, never bloomed, & I had given it up for dead.

Any thoughts on this one?

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Comments (7)

hosenemesis
15 years ago
It looks like Dusky Challenger to me, but I have only seen it in photos. The size of my flowers varies depending on the water. I have some very tiny English Charms sitting on my desk right now, and some HUGE ones grown in a different bed outside.
Renee
newyorkrita
15 years ago
I love the color on that iris and what a whopper of a size.
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organic_kitten
15 years ago
I would Look Really hard at Titan's Glory.
kay
Nancy
Original Author
15 years ago
Well Kay, I wonder. I did get Titan's Glory a couple of years ago, but it is tagged & I've been pretty certain about it. However, I've been looking & looking to see the difference between that tagged TG and Dusky Challenger. The flowers side by side look exactly alike, same height. The height between my other DCs & this big one are pretty much the same, the colors are the same, just the size of the flower. They are both blooming at the same time, I think TG is a EM while DC is late bloomer. They are both blooming about mid season :) Mainly, I don't see how I could possibly have messed up the tags on these 2 either. Of course, if anyone can, that would be me.
Renee, this iris is in my "hardship" area. The soil here is not that bad, but it is far away from any water, never gets fertilized. There is no difference in the other iris there. Right now, we have no problem with water. We're above 8" average rainfall for this year, I think it was in late Feb we were 7" below average rainfall. Nothing is lacking for water. Supposed to rain all day today, if it isn't tomorrow, I'll be going through my iris & digging those that are yellowing.
chadinlg Zone 9b Los Gatos CA
15 years ago
Kay may be on the right track.
I would say that Hello Darkness is darker than the Iris in your picture, and tends to be average in size with really nice ruffles. Dusky Challenger has very large flowers in CA and is more tailored like your photo.
Before the Storm is even darker still than Hello Darkness, almost as dark as Midnight Oil.
I found Midnight Oil to be so "black" that it was not "pretty", and the flowers seemed to 'burn up' quickly as it was a late bloomer here.. so I don't have it anymore. Hello Darkness and Hollywood Nights are my fav dark Iris these days.

Chad
mikesc
15 years ago
Hi,
It definitely looks like DC to me, and I've seen it bloom that large before.

Mike
Nancy
Original Author
15 years ago
I'm going to move this one over to my DC, & mark it very well.