If the plant has sported to solid it will likely never show the white again. The difference in your growing conditions in the two locations could be humidity. You might try adding a lot of humidity to your present location but this will not change the mutated plant. Nancy

Rosco_P, First, I love the name you used! Second, you are welcome. I really enjoyed taking the class it did help explain much to me as well regarding coloration of plants. And now I can pass on what I have learned.

Irises do not change color - not on a permanent basis, anyway. It is possible that herbicide drift can cause temporary changes in iris pigmentation (do you use RoundUp or have a nearby neighbor who does?). If that is what happened to your irises, they will probably return to normal color next year, assuming they are not subjected to herbicide again. I don't believe there are any nutritional factors that can completely change an iris's color pigment, though growing conditions can certainly influence color saturation. It wouldn't hurt to have your soil analyzed for any possible nutrient deficiencies. The amount of available sunlight and ambient temperature can also influence color intensity to some degree, though not to the point of turning one color into an entirely different one i.e. purple irises turning white. There are, however, other possible explanations for these apparent flower color changes: Irises often do not bloom every year. It is possible that your dark colored irises neglected to bloom this year, while lighter ones (perhaps left by a previous owner) within the same planting area did bloom. If you dug your original irises from a bed where only purple irises were blooming, perhaps you assumed that you dug only purple irises. However, there may have been a number of other colors of irises in the original bed that weren't blooming at the time you dug but that did bloom later in your own garden. If you dug and replanted a bed within the last several years, it's possible a tiny piece or pieces of a previous iris planting remained in the bed and has now matured to blooming size. An animal or child may have uprooted a rhizome from elsewhere and dropped it into your garden without your knowledge, or a neighbor may have tossed unwanted rhizomes over the fence into your yard where they took root. It happens. Certain cultivars are far more vigorous growers than others, and in closely planted beds, the more vigorous growers will almost inevitably choke out the less aggressive irises over time. Your original irises may have been bee-pollinated within the last few years. The seeds from those crosses may have ripened, dropped, and germinated among the original plants, and now you have a bunch of new seedlings blooming within your original clumps. Iris seed does not grow true to the parent plant and may well have produced some new colors in your iris bed. On extremely rare occasions an iris may "sport", meaning the iris may produce an offset that differs noticeably in appearance from the original plant. HONORABILE is one well-known example of a cultivar that has produced several sports in its long history. The sport offsets, however, do not change the color or appearance of the original plant. The only way to get all of this sorted out is to place a tag around each bloomstalk to identify its color, then dig and divide all of the rhizomes 6-8 weeks after bloom, replanting each color separately about 2' apart so they won't crowd each other too soon. Remove any seed pods that may form before they have a chance to ripen to avoid a repeat of this problem in your garden.

I have had excellent experiences with appliance dealers. One in NYC is something of a guru, he owns and runs a family business and he really, really knows his product and market. His advise was excellent. But that is rare. Where I live now we have a pretty good retailer though he's an hour away. I've only dealt with them over the phone and had very good service. But I knew what I wanted. They just did the ordering and walked me through the checklist of what was needed to install. I received so much bad/wrong/inaccurate information when I was shopping for a new fridge a few months ago I would never take the word of anyone at an appliance store for the most part. Today's customer, because of the internet and thank goodness for it, can do the research, ask the questions and fine down the choices to the point where you do targeted shopping. What I mean is that you go and look first at what you think will work for you, make notes, take photos for your reference afterwards. Then look at other things and talk to the sales people about price and options. Even with the good sales guy on my recent purchase, he was only knowledgeable about certain product lines. He had been to the Wolf/SZ factory for a "tour" and touted that fridge -- one of my 2 finalists -- because he knew it well. That was fine with me and I appreciated his input. But it didn't provide me with exactly what I required and my own inquires produced information he didn't have -- or even want to have. So I don't think the enemy is us. I don't think there is an enemy. I think there are foundational changes that have switched the responsibility from sellers to buyers. Don't know about you folks but the amount of research, checking, deliberation and shopping that goes into an average purchase these days can be overwhelming. It doesn't especially bother me because I've always done research and reporting of one type or another. But even with skills, it gets overwhelming. Or worse boring. I had to buy 3 surge protectors this week after another one of our crazy power events. My eyes were glazed over. And what arrived in the main was still surprising. You just want to go buy a stove or a fridge not take a graduate course in engineering. Unfortunately, that's not the way it's going. So forget about the old days. They are so gone. Today, it's research, a little luck, an ability to gauge quality and value and the ability to match expectations and budgets to the market. And it's not pretty.