Peacock Flower
Dietes bicolor
(dy-AY-teez) (BY-kul-ur)
Synonyms: Bicolor Iris, Yellow Wild Iris, Evergreen Iris, Spanish Iris, African Iris, Moraea bicolor,
This is a very beautiful member of the Iris family (Iridaceae). This South African native is hardy to USDA Zone 8 and I have seen it cultivated around here in pots. It is funny that it’s common name is Peacock Flower because so are several other plants. I guess that is where confusion sets in when speaking of plants with their common names. This is strikingly beautiful plant and if you want more information here is a link to an article written by Marc Stern of Witwatersrand National Botanical Garden.
Click Here
I went over to ‘my’ rose garden yesterday and worked for a couple of hours. Good news is I had to deadhead several hundred old flowers and there was at least 150 flowers blooming. I hadn’t been over there in about 8 days, which is slightly longer than I had wanted to be away. Things were okay and the cooler weather and fertilizer I applied has really made the roses start to flourish. Most of the roses are named and have their tags. This one wasn’t of course. I thought it was a nice deep pink. I shot this with my Sigma 17-70mm macro lens. It is a more traditional picture in some ways than my usual rose photos.
5 comments:
That peacock flower is gorgeous!
That's a lovely photo, Chris!
The Dietes is used a lot in Austin landscaping - some established plants are enormous. They don't seem to make many flowers for the size of the plants but the individual blooms really are pretty.
I bought a starter plant from a benefit sale - it made one stalk so far.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
This is a fairly common flower in Miami. I think I actually have some seeds if you are looking for any. I'm not sure if they will germinate, but lemme know!
Hi dot. You could probably get away with growing this one.
annie, thanks for your local take on the Peacock Flower. This one was growing in a pretty small pot in NYC. I don't think it could get too vegetative. I hope you post a picture of yours when it blooms.
misti, sure I will try some. I am going to look at your site to see if I can email you. I am going to research if they grow from seed first.
At first glance I thought the Peacock Flower was an orchid. Very beautiful. The coloring also reminds me of Calochortus the mariposa lily.
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