Every February or March the packaged dry root Mart rhizomes start appearing in the stores like Walmart, Costco, Reno Depot, Home Depot etc. I like to buy them and plant them in pots indoors to alleviate some of the " cabin fever " symptoms we experience after many months of sub zero temperatures.
Here's a weird example from an imported
Dutch TB rhizome of Louvois that I bought at Rona L'entrepot..
At the time I didn't know what Louvois looked like so I wasn't disappointed
until I went to the Historic Iris Preservation Society web page . I felt
foolish because somebody on Iris Talk questioned as to whether I was actually
growing the real thing. What
I saw was a cold shower for me. The photo on the
package looked nothing like the real Louvois !!!! Mart irises are
supposedly notorious for blooming different colors than expected.
Below is a scan of the package. Notice the the modern looking form.
The scribbling on the photo is courtesy of my son so kindly ignore it..
I cut the name off the photo to use as a plant marker.
This is how it bloomed, identical to the photo at HIPS. I guess when it came time to printing the labels, they didn't have a photo on hand of what Louvois really looks like. Maybe they made an error at the print shop and mixed up names, who knows. All I know was that I was pleased that I got the real Louvois. Please excuse the poor under exposed photo. . It's a very attractive historical iris and worth the $2.87 Canadian dollars.
See more of my Mart Irises