Iris 'Roy Elliott'
Jane McGary (Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:01:11 PST)

Tucked in a Christmas card, a friend sent me a print of a remarkable
iris she grew from seed from the NARGS Seed Exchange several years
ago. She told me it was on the list as "Iris 'Roy Elliott'", no doubt
at a time when the seed list didn't use "ex" to indicate the seed
parent is a cultivar. I don't have a version of the photo small
enough to post on the wiki (I'm not sure whether I could scan it
adequately at home) but hope to do so in a couple of weeks. I wonder
if any of our iris experts can tell us what sort of iris 'Roy Elliott' is?

All I have is a close-up of the flower, which looks to me like a
Pacific Coast hybrid. The falls are lemon yellow, stippled with dots
and dashes of deep purple, and have no beard or crest. The standards,
about 2/3 the length of the falls, are white with similar purple
stippling and are ruffled on the margins. The broad style arms are
pale yellow with a violet overlay that deepens to the median, and
their edges are incurved. The grower tells me it forms a clump with
short rhizomes and has rather broad leaves that are shorter than the
flowering stems. It's a pretty startling flower, and you can imagine
my reaction (naked greed) when she mentioned she has two good clumps of it now.

Happy New Year, and the snow is finally melting!
Jane McGary