Do any of you know what irises have the longest and fattest horns? I'd like to eventually cross them for this trait. The more dramatic the better!

On my phone so hard to pull up pictures, but several Burseen iris meet this criteria. Check out Tobacco Chew and Stolen Identity and go from there.

Thanks for the suggestion Leslie

For another hybridizer - check out Brilliant Idea.

This thread went around a couple of years ago... Lots of great pictures of beards.
The thread "Beards!" in Irises forum

Thanks Sharry,:) I did see that thread already, but I was wondering if anyone knew what the record holder is on horn length for certain. So far the largest I've seen listed is 1 inch in length.

You guys are all about size

So which one holds the record so far? I'm assuming you're not considering flounces, & spoons?

I have nothing to compare it with as it is the only one I have with horns, but here is Horned dragonfly

It seems to me that once they got so long they turn into flounces, like Canary Feathers.

Thorn bird seems to have a long horn that also comes out as a flounce at times.

Thanks everyone, I'm new to irises so I'm not sure what the exact difference is between a flounce, a horn, and a spoon. Though I've seen enough pictures of spaceage irises to have a pretty good idea. I'm interested in the most extremes of any type really. I've had my eye on canary feathers, but I've never seen horned dragonfly before.

Are there any flounces that are larger then Canary Feathers? What you said about horns usually turning into flounces after a certain point makes sense to me Tom.

I am watching and learning too. I don't have any so far

I bought a bunch last year. Let's see what opens.

I know that feeling Teresa, I've just ordered 4 so far. Kidpower having the longest horns of the bunch. Now that I've found spaceage irises I'll probably be buying more of them then I can afford. That's why I'm hoping I can find someone who has already compared most of them in person. Then I could hopefully narrow it down to a top 5.

Hyperspace is promising


And a few others that caught my eye

High Flying Flamingo



Lacy Chandelier





Fuzzy Wuzzy Rocket is the sort of beard style I'm looking for mostly though. Only with the goal being to get them even longer, while maintaining that fat caterpillar look :)

Henhouse said:You guys are all about size

So which one holds the record so far? I'm assuming you're not considering flounces, & spoons?

Of the fuzzy beard type I think Fuzzy Wuzzy, Tobacco Chew and Brilliant Idea are the fattest.



The longest? Not sure, but Elvis Dreamer sure has long ones!




This would be a flounce:
, also Lacy Chandelier above

A Pom pom is a flounce on steroids: Blue J has many pictures of them on their site.


There are horns such as Thornbird usually has:

Then feathered horns - as you see in Canary Feathers above.

Oh, wow this is opening up a whole new world.

The only space we have is 'Punk' which is a mini dwarf, not what you wish to grow.

Leslie, Elvis dreamer definitely looks to be a step in the right direction for my goals. Also possibly Lava Moonscape, though Elvis looks longer. Appears to be the longest so far..haha

Lava Moonscape


Anyone know of longer? Is there perhaps a iris database with a search engine for beard length?

This is a very cool thread. I know nothing, but I'm learning a lot. Keep it coming!

TomThumb - that would be a very specialized database indeed if it had beard length!