Description
Vespasianus is the so-called “F form” one of the members of a series of wild selections of Iris stolonifera made some years ago from near the village of Sina. Originally one plant of each was collected and these selections have subsequently been increased in cultivation to give true and even clones.
This superb form has standards of a lovely, pale sky-blue overlaid with violet and veining in a deeper shade, outlined, peripherally with a confluent bronze shade over which the violet veins appear as a darker bronze. The bases of the standards are attractively ruffled. The falls are of violet-brown combination with broad, strongly coloured veining of deep brown over a violet ground which tones to white towards the white beard. Perhaps my favourite selection of this “Sina series”
Vespasianus, Roman Emperor from AD 69 to AD 79, was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, perhaps best remembered as the builder of the Flavian Amphitheatre, which we know today as The Colosseum.
