I have been putting a lot of pictures into the database , the latest batch being "Historics". One of them, "Numa Roumestan" triggered a memory of a neat article about three RED irises and the competition between them in the marketplace. Never heard of "Numa Roumestan"? Me neither when I first ran across the article. The other two?

Indian Chief & Dauntlass

Hmmmmm.......................

Here is the link to the neat article.

http://historiciris.org/articl...


Dauntless; Indian Chief; Numa Roumestan



Which one do you have?

Which one would you want (if you did not have any of them)?

Cool article Greg, thanks for sharing! I've got Indian Chief, and possibly Dauntless too. If so, I've lost track and have been thinking they're all Indian Chief for some time.

Great article. And a nice writing style too.

Thanks for posting the link, Greg . I had read the article ,some years ago, and grow "two-out-of-three".....I'll have to "trade you out of" a piece of *Numa* ! I assume you have it, as it's your pic in the DB

Nope! I have been posting large numbers of "Superstition Iris Gardens" pictures. It is their picture. I only grow "Indian Chief".

I just checked, Superstition Iris Gardens has "Numa Roumestan" for $5

I quite like the much forgotten Numa! I don't grow any of them, but I am not one to let a little red iris go without a garden!

I would like to have all 3 to compare. It's interesting how far reds have come. I wonder if today we could even describe them as primarily red.

Thanks, Greg !

You're correct, Neal ! "Red" was, and still is, a *relative*term ! The same can be said for "Black", the yellows, and the 'true blues" seem to have been finally developed (after a lot of effort!), I find it interesting to see the "evolutionary changes" that have happened in iris, not only in "color", but in pattern, as well.

I agree, Arlyn. How much further can they go? Some varieties are so ruffled now that it is hard to see the six falls, six standards form. To me they are a novelty iris. And the appendages on some of the space age irises are getting to be almost as big as a fall. With the exception of a true red and a true turquoise iris I don't know how many more 'new' looks can be achieved. We have diamond dusted and gold dusted. I do love some of the luminatas.

To help differentiate between IC and the others note that the IC beard is fuller while the others become sparser/thinner toward the fall end.

What a neat article. Thanks for sharing. I need to get one or more them!..'

I agree about 'red.' It's the same with 'blue.' I see more purple or lavender than true blue.

I say get the most unusual one, which means get:

Numa Roumestan!

And its fun to say!

Numa!
Numa!
Numa!

why, yes it is.

No more room to stand? !! No more rooma Stan? !!

Never mind me, just playing with the name since you said it was fun.

Ah yes, I see that difference in the beard of IC, and it looks like Numa has a bit of a white line extending from the beard that the others don't. I've got 2 clumps, from different people in a swap some years ago, so I'll compare them when they bloom.

Neal,
True on the white center line.
Note also the difference in the haft veining. Dauntless has almost a circle of the white background, IC has less veining with other pix showing almost a straight across pattern and NR cuts back more sharply.
Will be interesting to see which you end up with.

There is another interesting comparison of a couple of older irises, Wabash and Bright Hour, that is similar to the discussion started by Greg. The text and pictures are at: http://www.worldiris.com/publi...

loved this article! Indian Chief was on the property when I moved here. When I was trying to figure out if it was Dauntless or IC, I did quite a bit of comparing and asking questions. One of the other distinguishing features is that IC has a wire rim on the standards.
I need to get Dauntless this year, and would love to get Numa too.. I tend to be drawn to varieties that are impossible to get
Will read about Wabash now..
Thank-you Greg and Dave for posting those articles.