Description
(Iris lortetii var. samariae)
A large, early-flowering species resembling Iris lortetii (or a variety of it, according to some) but supposedly with even larger flowers, each some 12cm across held on stems 30cm or so tall. These flowers give the appearance of being made of pink satin, though close examination shows that they in fact have a white ground which is very finely lined with warm pink-brown on the standards and heavily spotted and flecked with brown-pink on the falls. The falls have a deep red-black signal spot.
Native to Israel and Jordan, where it is found in arid environments and this needs excellent drainage and a hot dry summer to even survive. It isn’t the easiest to persuade to flower or for that matter, to grow, but it can be done, and I do recall a time when one could buy this by the hundred from farms in Israel where it was grown and propagated.
We don’t have a picture for this one, however you can search google, to see what it looks like.