Irsh flowers what happen???

Lots of times when a plant reseeds itself the results are not like what you planted originally. Sometimes you get a hybrid that comes up a different color or you lose the hybrid characteristics that it had to start with. I plant red impatiens every year, but the ones that come back from seed the next year are always orange.

Many factors can cause flowers to change color. The thing that takes place with color changing is the Rootstocks, Seedlings, Stress, AGE, SOIL, and the plant SPORTS. The main cause or your plant would mostly be stress, you should read the stress paragraph I written down for you.

ROOTSTOCKS - Many plants including roses, fruit trees, shade trees and some shrubs are grafted onto the roots of hardier relatives. This technique can make plants grow faster, stay more dwarf or have other desirable characteristics. The problem arises when the top, grafted part dies, leaving the tougher rootstock alive and ready to grow.

SEEDINGS - Some perennials live longer than we do, others die out after 3 or 4 years. These short-lived varieties often produce lots of seed and the plants resulting from this seed are usually more vigorous than their older parents. If the parent plants were hybrids, as many common garden plants are these days, seedlings from their seed will often not have the same color flowers. Columbines are notorious for dying out after a few years, leaving behind white or yellow-flowered progeny in their place.

STRESS - If iris are moved from one place to another and left out of the ground for too long, this stress can result in white flowers. Iris growers I consulted verified this phenomenon, but didn’t know exactly why it occurs. Sometimes the original flower color will return, sometimes the plants will bloom another color after a year or two. All the brightly colored iris I moved from one home to another had white flowers the first year, and mostly blue the second. I’m waiting to see what happens next year. Stress may alter the color of other flower varieties as well, but iris are the ones it happens to most frequently.

Iris are tough plants and are often available for sale from corms that look quite shriveled with brown leaves, but that grow with no apparent problem. Soak these starts in water for several hours for best results.

AGE - Tulip flowers tend to turn yellow or white as the bulbs get older. Gladioli tend to turn yellow. Again bulb growers confirm this occurrence, but don’t have a good explanation for why. This color-change phenomenon is one of the reasons older bulbs are discarded and younger ones replanted when bulbs are dug and divided.

SOIL - Many gardeners are familiar with hydrangeas that change flower color from pink to blue depending on their soil’s acidity or alkalinity. The variety that does this quick-change act is commonly grown in the east, but can be grown here only as a house plant. Acidic soil with aluminum turns these flowers blue, more alkaline soil with iron produces pink flowers. I’m not aware of other flowers affected to this extent by soil, but it is certainly possible.

SPORTS - We’re not talking football here. A sport in the horticulture world is a plant branch that has noticeably changed, whether it be flower color, leaf color or another feature. Again, no one is exactly sure why, and these are relatively rare in the plant world, but many new varieties come from spontaneous sports. If you discover one in your yard, it must be propagated by cuttings to keep its unique color or form.

We may not always appreciate Mother Nature tinkering with the color schemes in our yards, but it’s just a part of growing plants. My solution is just to love the white columbines and blue iris I’ve ended up with.

What are "irsh" flowers? Some flowers change color depending on the soil they are planted in.