Does anyone have any decent images of Sable Night in their computer albums, (Paul Cook, R. 1950)? This may help greatly in disproving what I think is a mistaken identity of one cultivar.

The problem I've got is that I'm hunting for Sable Night and everywhere I've looked, are the alleged 'Sable Night' that are looking more like Black Belle.

I dont care how many photos ends up on here, I'd like to see as many as possible from whoever got Sable Night if that is okay?

Also, I'd like to ask 4 questions, about Sable Night.

1) Does Sable Night have any PBF?

2) Does Sable Night have any yellow colouring on the style arms? Or creamy-white like I thought?

3) Are the falls dark burgundy or black-ish?

I could pull images from each nursery I've looked at but I could get in big big trouble, one nursery listed a Sable Night with blue beards, the rest have burgundy beards!
Otherwise the rest are identical to my Black Belle (so I'm including my own image).

So here's my Black Belle, tiled image *please excuse my husband's backyard junk* My ideal of a perfect backyard conflict with hubby's ideal of a scrapyard! He's into 4wds and I, into gardening.

Have you checked the data base images here?

Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Sable Night')

gemini_sage said:Have you checked the data base images here?

Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Sable Night')

I've done better, I've tree-mailed lol. I'm still not one hundred percent with the image...but I see no yellow colouring so far There wasn't enough of an opening (past the beards) to see clearly the colours of the style-arms.
I'm hoping to borrow someone's image when match and compare against other 'Sable Night' here in NZ. I'm actually hoping to find one for a project so if the contributor's Sable Night doesn't have any yellow, then I can ignore any 'Sable Night' displaying the yellow within.

The Historic Iris Preservation Society website gallery lists:
From Marble Iris Gardens catalog for 1952: “A rich black-violet with a claret undertone. The uniformity of coloring, coupled with a harmonious dark brown beard, makes this one of the most sensational of all new dark Iris. The flowers are large and full petaled and with heavy substance and a smooth finish.”

From Fleur de Lis Gardens catalog for 1960: “Sensational and very fine black. Extra large and nicely ruffled with reddish undertone predominately in the stands and velvety black falls.”

No yellow, blue or beards other than noted.
Pictures at http://www.historiciris.org/li...

And welcome Nicky. Husbands sometimes like to add "color" to a yard!

I have two Sable Nights from two different sources (Bluebird & Exline). Neither has bloomed yet after two seasons, and neither has PBF. Hopefully I'll have some blooms this spring and I can add some pictures to the database.

What part of New Zealand are you in? We were lucky enough to visit a few years back, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I grow a lot of plants from NZ and Australia, so it was nice to see them growing wild. The botanical gardens were great too

*I'm editing this post.. I went out and looked at my Sable Night earlier, and didn't see evidence of PBF... however, I checked my records, and do have it listed as PBF, so I suspect it's more prominent in the Spring.

Henhouse said:I have two Sable Nights from two different sources (Bluebird & Exline). Neither has bloomed yet after two seasons, and neither has PBF. Hopefully I'll have some blooms this spring and I can add some pictures to the database.

What part of New Zealand are you in? We were lucky enough to visit a few years back, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I grow a lot of plants from NZ and Australia, so it was nice to see them growing wild. The botanical gardens were great too

*I'm editing this post.. I went out and looked at my Sable Night earlier, and didn't see evidence of PBF... however, I checked my records, and do have it listed as PBF, so I suspect it's more prominent in the Spring.

I'm in a little town called Foxton and its located right in the North Island (mid central, 2 hours north of Wellington). Easy to find on google map.
Its a nice quiet town, 5 mins from the beach, with farms all around. We have a Dutch Wind Mill, milling flour in our town, with a tram of Clydedales taking tourists around town.
Its a quaint little town and the city is 40 mins away, Northern East.
Being a little old town, most houses have huge sections, unlike those nearer to the cities, perfect for having irises all over the place

Did you stay long in NZ?

Re Sable Night, I will note that in my Black Belle's profile, to remind myself about Sable Night not having PBF but the PBF may become visible at blooming time.
I've just purchased 'Still Night' which is looking rather similar, so I'll be looking into that one come blooming time *wink*

Superstition Iris Garden's sell "Sable Night". They are very careful with selling "Historics" and vette the plants they have. The picture in the ATP database posted by me is actually their picture at their iris farm. Drop them a line. I am sure they would love to chat about it.

Nicky, we were in NZ for about two weeks and went from the top to the bottom. It was a lot to see in a relatively short time, but enough to know that I'd like to go back. If our presidential elections don't go the way I'd like, I might be seeking asylum there

If a certain bully, narcissistic, attention seeking moron gets elected, there may not be any safe place to run.....

Did you hear about this guy who swallowed a yo-yo?

Swallowed a yo-yo?

On a bet.

Some clodhopper down in Griffith, Indiana.

They write the silliest things in the newspapers.

What do you mean, silly? I mean that's real news.

That's not like that politics slop.