■(TB)'Opening Night'

1970, Gibson

'Opening Night' (James Gibson, R. 1969). Seedling# 157-4A. TB, 42" (107 cm). Early to midseason bloom. Color Class-V3D-DD. Standards velvet black-purple; falls darker; ruffled; lively purple beard. Seedling# 130-9 B1KA ((seedling# 90-SB ('Black Hills' x 'Blue Spinel') x 'La Negra Flor')) X 'Dark Fury'. Cooley's Gardens 1970. Honorable Mention 1971.

See below:

• * References

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References:

OPENING NIGHT (Gibson, '70) M. 38" Each $25.00. Illustrated on the cover. This is the first "black" Iris we have ever introduced, because there has been an abundance of good ones from many other sources. Without any claim that this one is the very best of all, we do know that it has had so much favorable comment from those who have seen it, that more advance orders and inquiries about it have been received than has been the case with any of our previous introductions. A near black flower of colossal size, with very wide, spreading falls, ruffled and fluted, not laced, and with a deep violet beard. Heavy, stout, well branched stalks with many blossoms. No. 157-4A. [Cooley's Iris, 1970]
Jim Gibson, the plicata prince, pulled a dark surprise on me. For the past few years, 'DUSKY DANCER' (Luihn '67) has seemed the ultimate in ruffled blacks, and I was happy to see her dance award-wise; but I saw the "penultimate" in Jim's garden, as 157-4A (OPENING NIGHT), a very tall, vigorous plant with a flower having blacker and more ruffled kirts than Dancer. Three huge blooms, widely spaced and held up to the sky, said to me that this iris is a great silhouette flower. [Elsie Mae Nicholson, “The Rainbow Trail in California---1969,” The Bulletin of the American Iris Society, No. 194 (July 1969): 20-21.]

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-- MichaelGreenfield - 2010-01-06