Bloom Season

related links.............Phenology = study of bloom season

In official printed checklist entries there are one or more letters just after the height of the plant. These designate bloom season. Their meaning is often misunderstood. What do these really mean? They are supposed to mean whether a plant blooms in the early, middle or late part of the season of bloom for the class in which the plant is registered. It is not the season of bloom for all Irises that was it orginal definition in the 1939-49 checklists. The new definition began in the 1950s. Dwarf Irises for example often bloom a couple of months before Japanese Irises. But L. meaning late can be used for dwarfs that bloom to the end of the time of bloom natural for dwarfs and E. meaning early would be applied to those Japanese which bloom at the beginning of Japanese bloom time. Considering very many registrations for dwarfs say E. and most registrations for japanese say L. one can only assume that some registrants have confused the bloom season for each class (the current definition) with the bloom season for all irises (the old definition).

The letters normally encountered in the printed checklists are;
  • VE = very early
  • EE = extra early
  • E. = early
  • M = mid or middle of
  • L = late
  • VL = very late

Note these definitions have evolved with time. The 1929, 1939, 1949 checklists had the old definition of bloom season as comprizing the entire season of bloom for the Genus Iris, but at some point thereafter the bloom season was based on each class. It is no wonder that today individuals are confused as to the meaning of terms. The goal of changing the definition was to provide more precision. Today one can add a date of bloom for a specific geographical place in a particular year. This is the most precise way of expressing bloom season. In this Encyclopedia, this is noted in the comment box for a particular cultivar and the list of comments appears after the box.

 


-- Main.RPries - 2012-07-12

This topic: Main > WebHome > AdmAll > IrisInfo > InfoBloomSeason
Topic revision: 02 Aug 2012, RPries
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