Some Spurias to Look For.....
Maxine Perkins - Mesilla Park, New Mexico
Soft Yellows: The following Spurias were outstanding last year for me and in the gardens I visited. Moonshine (Hager '93) ia a beautiful light shade of yellow, Offering (Corlew '92) is a ruffled creamy yellow with quince undertones and a deeper yellow signal, Lady Butterfly (Jenkins '94) is an early frilled and ruffled pale yellow.
Dark Reddish: An older favorite of mine Custom Design (Hager '81) continues to perform well for me. It is deep maroon brown with a bright yellow signal. And another older one is Countess Zeppelin (Hager '87) which is a deep mauve red-wine self with small signal. Two new ones that should be on your list to buy and look for in gardens are Zamboanga (Hager '92) with deep red brown standards and falls gold based with deep brown. The other newer one is Zula Chief (Jenkins '92) which is a glowing red black.
Brown: Barry Blyth introduced Chestnut Chime in '89. It is a truly lovely shade of brown with no signal, short and ruffled. He also introduced Bronzing (Blyth '89), described in the registration as mid-blue with a bronze overlay on the falls. Whatever color you decide it is in your yard, I think it is very nice.
White: Quite a few good whites are on the market. The following ones are growing well for me. Highline Snowflake (McCown '91) is a shorter heavily ruffled white with a bright yellow signal. Future Perfect (Hager '93) has lots of bloom, a fluted white with very small yellow signal. Snow Hawk (Corlew '88) has white standards and yellow falls with a white edge.
Blues: They are REALLY my favorite color. I have several of Dave Niswonger's that I'm looking forward to seeing in '97: Missouri Blues, Missouri Rivers and Missouri Streams. I also have Sonoran Skies of Floyd Wickenkamp's.
(Reprinted from Spuria Iris Newsletter, Winter 1996)