In the Spring 1980 I dug up what turned out to be Iris reticulata from the ruins of a house near my home in Fairfield, NJ. My father said the people that lived there were Biologists. He moved there in 1950 so he might have known them, I don't know. This house was on a street that was abandoned due to its being right on the Passaic River and it would flood. The house had concrete stairs leading to the water which makes me think of the 1920's or earlier when people would have gone swimming in the river.

Anyway: I only have one good photo of these plants from 2013. The blue is nothing like any I've seen in stores over the years. Does anyone know of a way to determine which variety of Iris reticulata I have? Are there lists of cultivars?

Here's my only in focus photo from March 30, 2013. Its all I have till next year:


Slightly out of focus, but a side view:


Thanks for looking. I'm interested in what can be found out about these bulbs.

Hi Jerry, What pretty irises! I'm afraid it would be very hard to identify the cultivar. Are you thinking that the owners from the 1950s planted them? There are a number of blue reticulated iris cultivars that were around back then. Here are some from the garden.org Plant Database:

Harmony: introduced in the 1950s and is a very common cultivar:


Joyce: introduced in 1943


Spring Time: introduced in 1950


You can also find some information on Iris reticulata and hybrids and some cultivars at the Iris Encyclopedia website:
https://wiki.irises.org/Spec/S...

Hope this helps!

Hi Laurie

I am getting the impression that the ruins I spoke of date earlier than 1950. But, how would my father have known they were Biologists if they were not there when he moved in in 1950? My memory of it is not the best. I do remember it had a natural stone foundation. It was burned for all the time I remember. There was a lot of concrete work, but it had a severely overgrown rock garden and that is where I saw these spikey grass like leaves that interested me, so I dug them up and brought them home. Turned out to be this Iris.

Thank you for your reply! The second two look close. Harmony looks out of proportion to what I have. I'll have to check your link. And now I am remembering that we have the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Upper Montclair, NJ. I've been there many times over the years. I'll have to check with them. Somebody there might know some more. https://www.presbyirisgardens....

lauriemorningglory said: Hi Jerry, What pretty irises! I'm afraid it would be very hard to identify the cultivar. Are you thinking that the owners from the 1950s planted them? There are a number of blue reticulated iris cultivars that were around back then. Here are some from the garden.org Plant Database:

Harmony: introduced in the 1950s and is a very common cultivar:

• Reticulated Iris (Iris reticulata 'Harmony.')
• Uploaded by evelyninthegarden

Joyce: introduced in 1943

• Reticulated Iris (Iris reticulata 'Joyce.')
• Uploaded by succulentlife

Spring Time: introduced in 1950

• Reticulated Iris (Iris reticulata 'Spring Time')
• Uploaded by lauribob

You can also find some information on Iris reticulata and hybrids and some cultivars at the Iris Encyclopedia website:
https://wiki.irises.org/Spec/S...

Hope this helps!

Double thanks again Laurie!!
I spent a large part of today going through that Iris Encyclopedia searching for I. reticulata varieties etc since the first they listed. I put them all in a Word Doc. Now I need to digest it. I see my question is not as simple as I thought. There is a lot of work needed to ID an unknown plant!!

I found the Historic Iris Preservation Society and plan on looking at them a bit more too. https://historiciris.org/ident...

I'm also going to go to the town hall as ask about the old tax maps to see if I can figure out when that house was built. The street was not even shown on historic topographic maps our state publishes going back to 1880's. Meaning, the street I know was there in the 1960's was not added in to that map on its revision in 1950. I don't trust it. It was a small dead end street.

So, I have not given up. So far I have a map from 1906 showing the land undeveloped and then one in 1933 showing the lots on the street. The houses could have been built before the depression. This makes sense. I'm going to see if I can find out when the house was last occupied since it was fire damaged in my memory from the mid 1960's. So, I will assume those Iris are from 1960 and before.

I found a 1953 Dutch Bulb catalog from P. de Jager & Sons Inc. while searching for a De Jaeger Nursery that was indicated on the 1933 map of my town. https://archive.org/details/CA... It lists four I. reticulata, one being the species, the other three varieties: Cantab, Hercules, and J. S. Dijt.

I just went through all of the Green Pages links on sellers of Fall Bulbs and maybe found two sources of Iris reticulata bulbs. I sent a message to each and am waiting replies. Anyone know of really specialty Iris reticulata sellers?

Color of varieties: some of the descriptions give a code for the color. Where is the source for this code? Is there a color chart that can be purchased to be able to quantify a color in a uniform way? I can see taking a picture of this chart with the lighting present on the plants I am interested in. I am really stuck here. I find it hard to describe colors. I am trying to eliminate cultivars by the color description.

See our database. I checked the search box for reticulata and came up with 4 pages of search results. https://garden.org/plants/grou... .

Hope this helps.

DaisyDo said: See our database. I checked the search box for reticulata and came up with 4 pages of search results. https://garden.org/plants/grou... .

Hope this helps.

Thank you Daisy. I rapidly went through the four pages and saw some cultivars I'm interested in. And members have them. But none have them to sell, at least for what I've seen. Right now I'm looking for the J.S. Dijt cultivar to buy a minimum quantity to plant near my existing plants.

To me, J. S. Digit looks to be much more of a red-violet than any you have pictured.

Scroll down to see all the pictures of it Reticulated Iris (Iris reticulata 'J. S. Dijt') .

Good luck IDing yours.

DaisyDo said: To me, J. S. Digit looks to be much more of a red-violet than any you have pictured.

Scroll down to see all the pictures of it Reticulated Iris (Iris reticulata 'J. S. Dijt') .

Good luck IDing yours.

Daisy, I agree that colors are hard to determine. And my color vocabulary is terrible. I have print books with photos of some cultivars that show J.S. Dijt to be a possibility. Others posted on the Iris Encyclopedia look too light. Some look like matches. It seems the location where it is grown has a significant effect on the plant-or even possibly the year it is grown. I know when I take photos they are RAW formatted and need to be "processed" before they can be posted. That is pretty subjective to my mind. A color card photo would tell me what I need to do, but I don't have one (yet) and I don't have any flowers to photograph till next year. And the settings on each person's monitor/(Edit) screen will have a great effect on the photo. It can get pretty complicated.

That's why this database, containing photos taken by numerous people all with different cameras is so valuable. In this case the photos are all pretty consistent in depicting the iris as a red-violet. Next year when yours blooms again, you can compare to these.

DaisyDo said: That's why this database, containing photos taken by numerous people all with different cameras is so valuable. In this case the photos are all pretty consistent in depicting the iris as a red-violet. Next year when yours blooms again, you can compare to these.

I did look at all of the photos in the database and they mostly do look redder than mine. I just copied one of the photos from the Iris Encyclopedia and I hope I can post it here.


This is redder than mine for sure. Is that purple? I'm color challenged.

This is the description of J.S. Dijt from the Iris Encyclopedia: 'J. S. Dijt' (J. S. Dijt. R. 1939). Section Hermodactyloides. Ret; 3½" (8.5 cm), Flower diameter 2 ¼" (6 cm), B7D; Dark red-toned blue self; KAVB gives "Flowers purple (RHS 834/2), falls reddish purple." Van Tubergen 1938. Award of Merit.—B.C. 1938, Award of Merit.—Royal Horticultural Society 1981, First Class Certificate 1985—Royal Horticultural Society. Iris reticulata. M. Bieb..

I am assuming "B7D" is a color code along with "RHS 834/2".

"I'm color challenged."

Are you saying that you have red-green or blue-yellow color deficiency/blindness? Retired optometrist here.

I see a huge difference between the color of yours and J. S Dijit. Really.

DaisyDo said: "I'm color challenged."

Are you saying that you have red-green or blue-yellow color deficiency/blindness? Retired optometrist here.

I see a huge difference between the color of yours and J. S Dijit. Really.

"Color challenged"
No diagnosis, just lack of vocabulary for color. I actually was looking at the dusk sky last night and made a mental note of "sky blue". Many different shades of sky blue depending on which compass direction being looked at. And as it gets later, its even more change. So... one persons sky blue is not the same as another's. I've seen Bluebird Blue and others.

And yes, I see a huge difference too. I am pretty sure I can eliminate J.S. Dijt as a possibility.

Yes, I grow J.S. Dijt and it is much redder than the irises in your pictures - provided that those depict the colour accurately of course.

My image of it in the DB shows the real colour pretty well:

IrisLilli said: Yes, I grow J.S. Dijt and it is much redder than the irises in your pictures - provided that those depict the colour accurately of course.

My image of it in the DB shows the real colour pretty well:

• Reticulated Iris (Iris reticulata 'J. S. Dijt')
• Uploaded by IrisLilli

Thank you Lilli. Your photo shows the falls having a different color than the standards, which matches the description "KAVB gives "Flowers purple (RHS 834/2), falls reddish purple." " May I copy your photo for my own personal use on the Word Document I'm making?

My impressIon of Lillie's photo is that it shows a typical bitone, with the falls being simply a darker (blacker) version of the same red-purple color as in the standards. A blacker version of a color is called a "shade."

I just found some information on color charts used to describe Iris on the Iris Encyclopedia. I have not read much of it, but it looks like it will be a start. The link is to the Index page on the Iris Encyclopedia and there are four links under Color. https://wiki.irises.org/Main/I...

The Ridgeway color system is referenced in your links. For those interested, a paperback edition of the Ridgeway color charts is in stock and available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1599862999/ .