Harmonics is a mid to late season flowering plicata and presents the ultimate contrast, not just the blue and white distinctive plicata pattern, but as an excellent example of the advances made in modern plicata breeding. Really good bud count on strong well branched stems, with a slight sweet scent. Pollen parent to Barry Blyth's 2000 introduction 'Painted from Memory'. The Blyth family has a long history of hybridising good quality plicata's in the blue and white colour range that quickly become classics's. 'Sapharine' another Blyth classic that I grow and possibly one of the great underrated blue and white plicatas of the last century. Australia has a great depth of plicata breeding which got of to a great start in the 1930's with Mr Aylett and his 'City of ' plicata series. His iris with its lost registration 'City of Armadale' was widely distributed in Australia and also used in plicata breeding.
Tempo Two Iris Daylilies Hostas Catalogue 1995-1996
'Harmonics' ( Blyth,94 Aust.) M-ML 38" A complete delight to us each year it flowers. Standards are white heavily overlaid and stitched light blue so that hardly any white shows through. The Falls bright white with 1/2" stippled edge of deeper blue and hafts are slightly deeper again. Beards are lemon white. Form is what makes it. Touching hafts on full wide ruffled flowers. Super branching make it an excellent show iris as well as a great clump of colour in the garden. This has a full sister for release in 1996( Some Are Angels ) that is pure white recessive that is also spectacular.
AIS Checklist 1999
HARMONICS ( Barry Blyth, R. 1994). Sdlg. Z62-1. TB, 38" (97 cm), ML. S. white, heavily overlaid and stitched light blue; F. white, 1/2" stitched and stippled deep blue edge, deeper hafts with violet tone, flared and ruffled; beards whitish, lemon in throat. W56-1: ('Lipstick Lies' x 'Light Beam') X 'Snowbrook'. Tempo Two 1994/95.
I see that my two clumps of the historic plicata 'Los Angeles' have shown good growth and could flower for the first time this season so it will be great to post the photos to show the progression of size and form of the last 82 years in blue and white plicata hybridisation.
As always clicking on the above image will take you to the larger, higher resolution version.
Photo Credit & Copyright Irishunter
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