Legacy plants that came with my house included irises. They all look like this. Can anyone tell me what kind of iris it is?

click to see photo

close-up of the flower


They have amazed me, because I dug up a portion of the yard for some reason since forgotten, and tossed the dirt into a pile in another area that needed filling. I paid no attention to the bulbs that were in the dirt I was moving it, focusing more on the actual job at hand. Lo and behold, a year or so later, I had gorgeous irises in the dirt's new location! (benign neglect wins again)

That is definitely an iris but one of the old variants of I.germanica. Shorter than the typical tall bearded and an early bloomer. May have a touch of fragrance. I think I have that one.

With the papery spaeths (where the flower is situated. ) is a form of iris pallida. May be a named species cultivar, but defineately a species. Glad that it is doing well for you.

Just wanted to say welcome to the iris forum, Mary. The iris is lovely.

I keep forgetting to say thanks for helping... Have to admit, the only thing I understood in Lucy's post was:

Glad that it is doing well for you

But I think the irises that came with the house are pretty, and wouldn't mind adding some more, at some point.

If someone should ask you what the iris is, just tell them it's an old cultivar of historic iris pallida. They probably won't understand a thing, and you'll sound really smart, LOL.

Stick around and you will find lots of pretty irises to spend money on.

Hah! Mary do I ever empathize.
Here's a link for bearded iris bloom anatomy I've referenced: http://www.leonineiris.com/l9i...
Here one for the American Iris Society encyclopedia entry for I. pallida: http://aiswiki.mallorn.com/bin...

You'll learn tons from these guys and see some beautiful Iris.

We inherited a early blue also. There were 2 varieties here. Both really lovely,my understanding is the iris came from owners mothers garden .
Cant find the Blue.It grows near the garage and I dont garden there.