Boy, Brett -- I think you're onto something!!

Wow...now I don't know which it is. I'm thinking EA is much closer.

Mine is definitely more reddish. Schreiner's sent it to me as a suprise extra bonus.

Nice picture Leslie, that's how mine looks too.

Oh how I love that Iris! I cannot wait to see one in my garden. Gonna be a year, though...................

Mine is a bit of a slow increaser, seems to bloom every other year. Once it gets enough rhizomes it should bloom every year here. Maybe with a longer growing season that you have it might bloom more for you.

So after much back and forth on another site and talking with a man near us who grows many Iris, mine is Elizabethan Age. I love it! Much better than the pink I thought it would be. My neighbors all stop and admire it. Thank you to whom ever IDed it correctly.

Montmartre is more red and is lovely!

Mary Ann I think they do sell the newer intro's as well to box stores, I don't know why else they would grow 10000 bulbs of a seedling before introducing it unless that was the case. There business is 85% commercial just a small percentage is retail for us Iris Lover's they have buyer's that come in and take ten's of thousands of bulbs at once like Dusky Challenger they will sell 30,000 bulbs in a year of it maybe more depending on the year can you imagine digging and moving those quantities every year The trucks never stop moving during there shipping season.
I think there customer service is fantastic they always get right back to you and the quality is awesome hard to find anyone that will guarantee a plant will grow and do well for you but they do and if it doesn't they replace it you can't beat that customer service.

Dusky challenger is old enough so people know it & want it. It is still a favorite on AIS favorite's lists. It is only we iris nuts who want everything new.

Oh Celia -- I'm so glad that you pursued that. I really doubted your initial identification, and I didn't want to rain on your parade. Elizabethan Age is a gorgeous Iris -- you're lucky to have it -- and at such a bargain! Good catch, Brett!!

Well Brad -- I'd really like to know where those intros go, that go to big box stores. I'd be standing in line waiting for them to unload the truck!!! And no -- I can't imagine digging and handling that quantity of rhizomes. Wow!

Lucy -- I just got Dusky Challenger last year! Am I lame, or what???

No matter it's name, it's still an eyecatcher!

I've been to Schreiners. They are even nicer in person. The gardens are huge!

Now I'm jealous..................!!!

My brother lives about 5 miles from them. My SIL and I go every chance we get.

Celia - I wonder if yours is Fancy Ideas. There is a picture of Fancy Ideas just posted in the How Many Have You Ordered thread that looks like the purple cousin of Montmartre. Maybe?

There are a lot of Luminatas similar to that. It's really impossible to ID them with pictures though. Need to grow them side by side and compare to know for sure.

The man near me grows EA and his looks exactly like mine. Unless he got the wrong one, too. Always a possibility.

I've ordered from Schreiner's for many years now and have had just one error. I ordered Fall Fiesta and what I got was Fiesta in Blue. It was tagged with the name of Fiesta in Blue. I know they would have corrected it for me, but I just planted the Fiesta in Blue and ordered Fall Fiesta the following year. We all make mistakes now and then. No big deal.
Sue

When you see lupin & CA poppies along with irises in the display garden, you know where you are.