BrightonPark said:Hello,
I'm not seeing many true neglectas here. To my understanding, neglectas are a subcategory of bi-tones that must be specifically light blue/violet standards and dark blue/purple/black falls. I am seeing a lot of amoenas (white tops) being posted as neglectas.
Carlos, I felt the same way as I was going through the database. I began to question the accuracy of the database information. I did some online research and could only find a very general description that was being used by most of the major sellers "Neglecta - blue or purple bitones with standards a lighter shade of the color of the falls." In fact I was concerned about a lot of the irises listed as neglecta, but finally came to this conclusion in Post # 797820 (191):
" Janielouie, I was curious about your question about whether About Town and Louisa's Song were considered neglectas. I can see where you would think so, yet they are generally referred to as Bi-Tones. It seems everyone is using the same definition of Neglecta, but it does not address the question of which purples are included: "Neglecta - blue or purple bitones with standards a lighter shade of the color of the falls".
Although I cannot find it written anywhere every place I looked seemed to include the blue-violets in the neglecta class but none of them include the red-violets. I don't know how you decided just where to draw the line. Like so many of these color definitions it seems to be a general classification that leaves a lot up to interpretation. "
The definition does not indicate how much blue has to be in the standards, nor which shades of purple in the falls qualify. Do you know of any 'official' definition that could clarify this? We want the database to be accurate. We are all learning as we go.
Guess what, the world is not one of absolutes, it's one of generalizations. We use generalizations to guide our thinking. There will always be those individual irises that push the envelop one way or another. I wonder if at the time the term "neglecta" was coined, there were very few colors in irises. So it was a handy term for those purple and blue ones with standards that had a lighter tint of the same color. Then comes the progress by hybridizer's, and low and behold we have reds and pinks and oranges and they have lighter tints of the color of the falls, but since we had our minds locked into neglecta only being in the purple and blue range, they began to call them bi-tones. Guess what a neglecta is a bi-tone too! I for one think the term Neglecta is outdated and of no use any longer. It served it's purpose but I believe it's time to move on and just call them Bi-tones and be done with it. The term amoena should be used to categorize those with pure white standards that do not have color washed in them. But knowing how change is pretty much impossible I'm guessing 500 years from now the same dialogue will be going on. 
Brilliant Disguise (posted under bicolor... database said Variegata)
