Just dropping in - thanks for the tip on 'Purple People Eater', Jan! I have it on order!

Yes, I have grown Lady Friend for many years. That's why I posted the photo of Lady Friend from the data base. I'm sure yours isn't correct. Sorry.

Wow, you can tell all the way from CA that it isn't correct. Sorry I just had to do that, Carl. I will try and get some photos of it this spring (my photo skills are greatly lacking) and give you a good look at it. I would really like to know if it is LF or not.

Wow,
Mom ordered it as Ladyfriend and it's been different colors since I've had it.
Good to know tho. These are the various colors I've had.

Only the last one comes close to that special Lady Friend color but the beard and form are wrong.

The form looks older than Lady Friend too. It looks very much like a noid I have. I have another noid I believe to be Lady Friend here:

This is the noid that reminds me of yours:

Neal, your first NOID is most likely Lady Friend. It is a very unique color. If I saw that in the garden my first guess would be Lady Friend.

Maybe that picture was photoshopped to be more red.

That unique color has always made it a stand out for me- I love it! It is one I feel fairly confident of the id for that reason, but I still need to get a known LF and grow them side by side for comparison.

Carl,
The last picture was taken in 2008.
I brought it home in 2005. It bloomed in 2006 and I didn't have a digital camera then. No bloom in 2007. But it bloomed yearly there after.
Mom ordered it because the color was described as Garnet. That was her name.
I had no iris that color then, or now, except for hers. The next year (2009) the color changed and it's been changed since. I was confused but thought it might have been because I had it in the shade. The neighbors have since cut down the walnut trees and it's a full sun bed now.

Neal,
Sadly it's a NOID, lol!
I will have to order one someday so she finally has her namesake.

Neal's plant looks like Lady Friend to me. It is much newer than the old historics.

Sally, Mid-America has a SDB called Blazing Garnet as a new introduction. I plan on visiting the garden this bloom season to take pictures of the SDBs. I want to visit during the TB season as well.

Sally, the color change makes me suspect a bee pod seed managed to germinate in the clump at some point in time. Sometimes seedlings can have the vigor and appearance of old historics and can grow more aggressively than the original plant, eventually smothering it.

Neal,
Ah. I will have to Google more about that.
I don't remember what it might have looked like the year it bloomed. I'm sure I was the one who planted it too because I remember when she showed it to me in the catalog.

But, it's funny I don't ever remember her having Mme. Chereau, and one year it bloomed. After it was done I took it. It was a few years after she died so I called it Mom's Stitched because she was an avid sewer.

Niki,
Blazing Garnet sounds pretty and like Mom when she was mad, lol!

!

Haha!!! Sally!!!

Boxergirl said:This is my lady friend, I agree with Carl, I don't think the one above looks like lady friend.

I bought Impulsive in 2014 and this is what bloomed.
Since I'm still in the learning stage does anyone think this could be Lady Friend (beard color makes me say no)

Barbara, although I can't quite put my finger on what looks different too me, I don't think it matches Lady Friend. I see the beard is a bit different, and I think LF has a slightly lighter flash just under the beard. Its a quality that gives LF a kind of glowing look.