Spanish orange? Canterbury purple ?... is there some sort reference document where one can look up the difference between opera pink and ovation pink? Driving me crazy because I have to order all my iris on line from pictures, and we all know how different a color an iris will look depending on the lighting, the camera and how long the flower has been open.

There are several "color nomenclature" books, or charts out there....try googling "color chart'.... RHS has one...kind of expensive.....Ridgeways is sometimes available on Amazon (reprint), fairly cheap....there may even be a way to access them online...not sure about that .

Here's Ridgeway's Probably the RHS one would be better for "newer" iris, though....Ridgeway's hasn't been the "standard " for a long time,
http://lhldigital.lindahall.or...

crowrita1 said:Here's Ridgeway's Probably the RHS one would be better for "newer" iris, though....Ridgeway's hasn't been the "standard " for a long time,
http://lhldigital.lindahall.or...

Thank you!

The Iris Database handles color a couple of different ways.

The "Bloom Color Description" field is basically a copy of the hybridizer's description of an iris when it was registered with the American Iris Society. I believe AIS encourages hybridizers to use the RHS color charts when describing an iris flower, but most do not. Altogether, I've seen at least a dozen different color classification systems used by various hybridizers and many, including a number of famous hybridizers, don't use any classification system at all.

We also have a "Bloom Color Classification" field in the database, which is essentially a simplified color chart included as a search aid. For, example, if you searched the "Bloom Color Description" field for for yellow irises, you wouldn't find those irises described by hybridizers as "lemon", "mustard", or any of the other synonyms for "yellow". But, all of those lemon, mustard, etc. irises could found by searching for Yellow in the "Bloom Color Classification" field (or, more accurately, will be once the Iris Database is fully updated).

KentPfeiffer said:The Iris Database handles color a couple of different ways.

The "Bloom Color Description" field is basically a copy of the hybridizer's description of an iris when it was registered with the American Iris Society. I believe AIS encourages hybridizers to use the RHS color charts when describing an iris flower, but most do not. Altogether, I've seen at least a dozen different color classification systems used by various hybridizers and many, including a number of famous hybridizers, don't use any classification system at all.

We also have a "Bloom Color Classification" field in the database, which is essentially a simplified color chart included as a search aid. For, example, if you searched the "Bloom Color Description" field for for yellow irises, you wouldn't find those irises described by hybridizers as "lemon", "mustard", or any of the other synonyms for "yellow". But, all of those lemon, mustard, etc. irises could found by searching for Yellow in the "Bloom Color Classification" field (or, more accurately, will be once the Iris Database is fully updated).

Thanks, Kent though the system described above doesn't clarify the issue for me. I know that the database uses what the hybridizers write - it's their terminology that I'm looking for a color chart to match to. What I'm looking to do is differentiate opera from ovation, lemon from citruline, azure from sky and so on.

Here for example is the description for "Light My Path" the picture posted with by the vendor doesn't show any difference in t he color of the standards and falls yet it says:

(Joyce Ragle, R. 2003) 34" tall, Midseason Bloom. S. pale amaranth rose; style arms light orient pink; F. light orient pink, white in center veined orient pink, haft medium orient pink; beards shrimp red, base white, few light blue hairs at end; ruffled; slight sweet fragrance. Lauer 2004.

That's going to be a tough one. As I said, there's no real consistency between hybridizers in terms of the use of color charts. In the example you cite, 'Light My Path', the hybridizer uses "HCC" which I believe, although am not 100% sure, stands for the Horticultural Colour Chart. If so, that's a fairly archaic system published in Britain in the 1930's.

Moreover, even if every hybridizer used the same system, you'd still have to overcome the fact that no two people see color exactly the same. For example, you say you don't see any difference in color between the standards and falls of 'Light My Path' in the vendor picture.

Assuming you are referring to this picture:



To me, the standards are not as clear a shade of pink as the falls. There's a bit of violet in them, which would be consistent with the hybridizer's description, at least as I understand the words she used.

I can say this, if you spend enough time reading hybridizer descriptions of irises and staring at the actual flowers in the garden, you'll eventually start to understand what a particular hybridizer means when he/she says "lemon" or "citruline" or whatever. That's about the best that can be achieved, I think.

KentPfeiffer said:That's going to be a tough one. As I said, there's no real consistency between hybridizers in terms of the use of color charts. In the example you cite, 'Light My Path', the hybridizer uses "HCC" which I believe, although am not 100% sure, stands for the Horticultural Colour Chart. If so, that's a fairly archaic system published in Britain in the 1930's.

Moreover, even if every hybridizer used the same system, you'd still have to overcome the fact that no two people see color exactly the same. For example, you say you don't see any difference in color between the standards and falls of 'Light My Path' in the vendor picture.

Assuming you are referring to this picture:

No, actually. I do see a difference in the colors in that one. It was a picture from a vendor on ebay, which I was just using as an example. Thanks so much for you input on this, and all you do for the irises database, the 8th wonder of the world IMO

Even when you use a chart (we have the royal Horticulture one) the petal colors don't match the chips. We can only say "near color number ###"

Some answers to this question from Keith Keppel:

He uses Dictionary of Color, by A. Maerz and M. Rea Paul, put out by McGraw Hilll, 1930 and 1950 editions, now long out of print. This does have names such as opera pink and canterbury purple. There are used copied available on line for $200 <gasp>. Well, seems expensive to me until I consider that I paid that much for 6 yards of dirt today <sigh>

Another old one that people used in the early years of catalogues, according to Keith, is Ridgway's Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, published by the author in 1912

[quote="LynNY"]Some answers to this question from Keith Keppel:

He uses Dictionary of Color, by A. Maerz and M. Rea Paul, put out by McGraw Hilll, 1930 and 1950 editions, now long out of print. This does have names such as opera pink and canterbury purple. There are used copied available on line for $200 <gasp>. Well, seems expensive to me until I consider that I paid that much for 6 yards of dirt today <

My dear, if you're paying that much, you need to call it "soil"
BTW, I've been paying about $48/yard.. Does that make it "designer soil"?

Henhouse said:[quote="LynNY"]Some answers to this question from Keith Keppel:

He uses Dictionary of Color, by A. Maerz and M. Rea Paul, put out by McGraw Hilll, 1930 and 1950 editions, now long out of print. This does have names such as opera pink and canterbury purple. There are used copied available on line for $200 <gasp>. Well, seems expensive to me until I consider that I paid that much for 6 yards of dirt today <

My dear, if you're paying that much, you need to call it "soil"
BTW, I've been paying about $48/yard.. Does that make it "designer soil"?

designer soil it is! Actually, the soil is 30 per yard, but there is -- haha --a delivery fee

Yep..if you're going to get it delivered, get lots!

I have often wondered where Keith got his color names. They are quite descriptive.

So many things I have yet to learn! Thank you all for this one!