Hi,
So I have a question involving names and identification. I have a bunch of iris and I have gotten them in various places. I dug some up from a friends yard when she died to remember her, from a house and property that was getting ready to be torn down and turned into a parking lot, from an Iris club sale, and from a nursery. I tried to keep them separate and tried to keep a list of names of the iris. Corboba, Abby and Me, Blatant, Chasing Rainbows are just some of the names I bought. But here's the thing....they are all pretty much blooming now and they are ALL either white or solid purple. If you look up the above names you will see they are either orange, yellow or two toned. Now i would understand if it were one of the plants I dug up, but they are ALL turning out to be white or purple. My question then is, when I bought these Iris, was I being scammed by the nursery or Iris club? Or is this a common problem with misidentification where there is a mix up with what the gardener thought they were buying and what they actually received?

Is every flowering-size rhizome actually flowering? If so, then it does sound like there's been a mixup.

If not, though, then my first guess is that your white and purple cultivars are just the first to flower. Irises don't all flower at the same time, so you may have different cultivars flower later.

Joshua has it correct, I believe. While there ARE scams involved in selling almost anything, and "accidents" happen to everyone, now and then, the most likely thing is that the "white", and the "purple" are , maybe, the hardiest varieties you have....they did the best, as to growth, and are the ones that bloomed....the others may need another year to get established enough to "put on a show"

Another thing to consider Meddjay, is that your original irises dropped seeds and the hardy seedlings have taken over and smothered out the named varieties who were the parent plants. I get multitudes of bee pods each year and must diligently cut them off before they mature and leave the seeds in my iris beds. Sometimes I must miss a few because I do get strange/new little irises growing in my garden.

Is your iris garden an established one?

Established....hmmm well sort of ? I mean I have had the iris a number of years but they are in pots not in the ground. Last year they didn't bloom because I had them in the shade. This year I moved them all to the sun about 4 months ago. So I have 15 iris plants, some of which I bought in Dec/Jan. Out of the 15, ten have turned out to be solid purple, or solid white. 3 probably won't bloom until next year I am guessing since they remain pretty small where the other ten's leaves grew and grew and they are all blooming. 1 is in bud and I am not sure what it will be yet, and ONE that is a very light lavender on the bottom and white on top and looks a little different that the other ones but doesn't correspond to any of the names I thought I bought, but it is STILL purple and white. So even though that one is purple and white it IS quite a bit different so I am assuming that it is one of the ones I bought even though it doesn't correspond with any of the names of the ones I bought. So see my dilemma ? I am wondering why almost ALL of them are either solid purple or solid white and if I got duped? But since no one here has said that is a common practice I guess it was just a mix up or misorder. The reason I was wondering in the first place is because I had gone to a nursery web site and their big selling point was that they did not mix up orders or send you the wrong thing so I thought maybe this is a common problem? Anyway its all good, I am still enjoying all the blooms and look forward to discovering what the last one will be...maybe I will get lucky and that one will be orange, or pink with purple polka dots ! You never know!

Getting the wrong iris is not common unless you buy from a box store or from e-bay, then it happens more often. Any reputable dealer would make it right if you did get a wrong one. If you kept your receipt, you could send them a copy of that along with some pictures of what you have blooming. They should either refund you or send correct cultivars.

Tom, I ordered from sutton and one I ordered ended up being another one. I took a couple pictures and and sent them an email. I got a reply pretty quick with the staying with the one sent if I liked it, or they can send a replacement when it comes shipping time. So, they are sending a replacement out.

A wrong one does happen once in a while, but a good iris farm will do what they can to make it good.

meddjay.

you've gotten sound advice from others' posts....the garden club where you got the irises? you may inquire about what you might have gotten, but since the irises are probably from different contributing members, it may be more difficult to find the correct replacements. but it's a great place to start. you might want to join and become an active member? a great place to form new friendships and widen your knowledge of irises.

most reputable iris growers/sellers are great about replacements if the wrong iris is sent.

meddjay ~ to the Iris Forum!

Hello all my fine flowered friend:
To update my post, I DID end up getting more colors than just purple and white but only a very few. But I can tell you I was thrilled to get those! I will attach photos of the non-white and purple iris that bloomed this last year. AND of course I have another question for all of you intelligent iris identifiers! So I have always kept a list of my iris, what blooms, what dies, what I got and where I got it...ya know that sort of thing. So while it is summer, I am updating the list and adding photos. I found I have a couple of names of iris in my lists but can't seem to find a pic of them in any database. Hoping someone here can help me. I am looking for photos of : FLORENT and IRIS BLUE. I saw that there is a Florentina and a Florentine but I am really careful about putting the correct name in the list (although it IS possible I made a mistake when writing the name down). If anyone can locate a photo of these names, I would be most grateful. If not then I will assume I recorded the names incorrectly.

I searched through the various types of bearded irises on the AIS website and cannot find "Florent" or "Iris Blue" or just "Blue". Are these tall bearded irises? Do you have the name of the hybridizer or any other information?

I'll bet you wrote the names down correctly, as you received them. Pass-along Iris, and club sale Iris aren't always reliably named, despite good intentions.
When our club has their sales, we have digs at various member's gardens. The digs are really a social event where most of the members sit chatting as they are labeling the Iris. Let's just say, some folks are more focused than others.. Also an unfamiliarity with a variety, can lead to mis-spelling or mis-hearing a name. As an example, I got "Arkansas Rounder" from one of our sales, and it is in fact 'Ozark Rebounder'.
I would guess your "Florent" is one of the ones you mentioned. When it blooms, you'll have a head start in it's ID. "Blue", however, will most likely be more difficult to pin down. It could either be part of the name, or just a description. When you post pictures, we are here to help

I ordered 'Parting Glances' this year and the marker on the iris I received said 'Party Glances' and I've seen plenty of other mistakes like it.

I sure got a chuckle out of Henhouse and IrisLilli's mis-labled names ! I am sure that the names were recorded wrong either by myself or whomever I got the iris from. Thanks for the middle of the summer laugh....at 113 degrees here in Arizona, I needed the laugh so not really too upset I couldn't place the name of the iris with a pic.