Irises. Where do I begin with irises, bearded iris specifically? I just love them. I've been recently looking at garden.org and returning to it to essentially 'fact check' irises I have seen throughout the web, or breeds I want to buy.

Hi, everyone. I am Monty. As the little header reads, I've been exploring this site for a few weeks now and have inly now noticed I could sign up for it.

I suppose my first post is for something I have ALWAYS wanted to figure out about the irises in our yard since the day we moved here (in 2004!) or, more specifically, when I grew old enough to start to develop a passion for plants, and more definitely, irises.

I think as of recent, I, along with a friend have discovered a few names of the irises...or, well, we think so.

I think the type of iris I am most certain of is our pretty and apparently very old fashioned lavender irises that I see everywhere in the region of Virginia I live in. Iris 'Dalmatica.'


My basis is that because it has those white/transparent bud pockets unlike any other iris I have ever seen, that clues me in. These look exactly like 'Dalmatica' to me.

One thing to note is that our property is big, and there were a ton of flower gardens that we simply could not keep up with, and left them mostly alone. Now, most of where our irises bloom are in a long "segmented" strip across from a gravel bit of road. By segments, I mean, there is a distinct beginning and end to group 1, and same for group (or segment) 2, 3 and 4.

Over 14 years, these irises have really multiplied far beyond what I could ever dig up and divide in a single day.

The most common, and I suppose the best grower are these tannish-bronze irises. Some details: I'd wager mid-bloom with one thick stalk which carries two or three branches and two buds per socket. Tall bearded at around 35-40 inches. It does not rebloom. What do y'all think this is? My thought is perhaps 'Bronze Beauty.'




The next, and second most common colour is a purple/white bitone. The common iris I hear for this is "Wabash," but, what throws me off is that Wabash's falls have a white line around the edges of the petals, and whatever this iris is, does not. Pretty good grower. Blooms a couple days after my tan irises. Pretty good amounts of blooms with two or three branches and double socketed buds. It also does not rebloom, or has never been seen to rebloom in 14 years. I'd say that these cover roughly 25% of the irises that bloom in our yard.





Next up would be these pink irises that are tall bearded, but evidently have very poor multiplying habits. When we moved here in 2004, and over the years, the tan to pink ratio was probably 3:2, but they've slowly started to vanish out of all four segments with tan irises being absolutely abundant, and the pink irises about depleted. Not a very great amount of flowers per stalk, with most two branches and primarily two socketed pockets.
It was in rare enough quantity this year that I only have one picture of it.


The last iris that I would love to find out what it might be is a shorter iris, perhaps around 28-34 inches, so maybe border bearded? It hasn't seemed to expand very much, but it is extremely consistent in the one segmented garden it is blooming every single year that I can recall. Usually two or three branches with a good 6-8 blooms a stalk. It also does not rebloom. It blooms about mid-season as with the entire bunch above, but along with the pink iris, a couple days after the purple/white, and tan, and two weeks after the lavender irises.




I said it was the last one, but this last iris is one that I haven't seen anywhere else and have not seen on the internet, and I am starting to feel as if I may have my own original iris due to birds and bees cross-polinating them. (Which if true, that is pure awesome!!) They're mostly white, but the falls have a tannish-bronze colourisation that looks very, very similar to that of my tan irises, and beautiful orange beards. They have bloomed sporadically throughout perhaps six or seven years, but white irises we had and I am sure of are not around anymore in my garden have not bloomed since, but these bloom I guess as a replacement? They bloom a few days after the tan irises do, but it is close enough to me to be a passed down trait if these truly are unique to only my garden and because of a cross between our vanished white irises, and our abundant tan irises. Same height differential to the tan irises, with very similar bud counts (7-9 per stalk) and very thick stems that have not ever broken that I've seen them. It also has not rebloomed, which would be acceptable since both potential parents never have either. Anyways, here they are!




And here's one of these surrounded by their tan counterparts for reference.


With that, it could entirely be a fluke and I have somehow missed these beautiful irises on the web, but considering I have seen nothing on the web, and nothing from any other garden in Virginia, it gives me some promise.

I know this is a long post, but I have wanted to figure this mystery out for years and years. I've got some more irises that I have purchased recently (that a rebloomers and I am soooo excited for that! Always, always and I do say always have wanted to have some rebloomers) and a year or two ago some from Walmart. I fail to remember the names of what I got except for Cherub's Smile. There were more than came from Lowes (Edith Wolford) and two other colours, but with the exception of Edith Wolford, have vanished completely and I long to have them back.

Anyways, I hate to post so much, but I really do appreciate if even you read all that. If you can solve some of my mysteries, that would just be an added bonus!

I look forward to sticking around here and seeing beautiful plants and flowers you all have to share! Thank you everyone,
-Monty

Sorry that I can't help with identifying your irises, Monty, but welcome to the forum!

hi and welcome undyinhlight.

to the iris forum, monty. the irises you posted look like historic iris, and i'm sorry to say, i don't know much about them. i don't grow any of the older varieties.

perhaps, someone more knowledgeable in this area will chime in soon.

Welcome, Monty!

Monty?

Hi, some of those look like irises I have, and they've been passed down from a generation or two, sometomes tended and sometimes abandoned. Which means they are survivors. Mid-August is generally a good time to dig up, divide, and replant. I'm sure you can find the how-to's online but my main contribution is this advice: I love 4 or 5 rhizomes planted in several small areas. They will be easier to tend and the bloom impact will be showstopping. Don't bury the rhizomes (only bury the fiber-like roots), do use diatomaceous earth and neem spray especially in spring, to keep out iris borers, and look into feeding times and fertilizer types, and add epsom salts, about 1 tablespoon to gallon, a couple times in spring. Keep the base clear of debris, winters in TN haven't killed them. Good luck!

I know that one cannot id an iris from a photo but Wabash and Helen Collingwood look similar. HC is tall and a great grower. Check out the bloom time and height on all you are trying to id.
to iris heaven and addiction here.

If it is shorter, then your yellow might be an historic along the lines of Sherwin Wright that is classified as a tall bearded but never grows very tall.
Your "Wabash" NoID - there are some others that look very similar to Wabash, including Bright Hour. If the bloom size is larger then Helen Collingwood is a possibility, but your bloom form looks more like the Wabash/Bright Hour blooms. The only way to know for sure would be to get a known rhizome and compare it's bloom to yours.

Leslie makes a good point concerning Wabash. One key point on Wabash is that the falls have a very thin rim of white surrounding them. Also Wabash has PBF at its base.

Thank you all for the warm welcomes!

I am very close to figuring out the mystery of these yellow irises, and I believe that Leslie may have figured it out, being 'Sherwin Wright', which look oh so close to what I have, but I suppose I can't say for certain. Perhaps I should try to find some other iris types that look very similar, and get my own to compare them. That should work, but Sherwin Wright matches the look, the size and the time-frame of all of my irises that were already here (old-fashioned look, before around 1970). Until I figure it out for certain, I suppose I can call these yellow beauties "Sherwin Wright" until I prove myself wrong.

Bright Hour and Helen Collingwood look so, very, very similar that it is hard to distinguish one from the other. I am leaning more towards Helen Collingwood since the flowers are really quite big (most of the time). They usually look to be around mid-large in size of flowers. BUT, what gives me more of a lean towards Helen Collingwood as opposed to Bright Hour is that I notice that there are very small white-lines at the base of the falls (unlike Wabash, which is more prominent). Easy to miss unless you look close. What I have does not have that at all, and Helen Collingwood appears to not have those either. As with Sherwin Wright, I'll call these purple/white irises of mine 'Helen Collingwood' until I can prove myself wrong. I'd love to get both Bright Hour and Helen Collingwood to compare to what I have, but money is low. Ah well. That'll come another day!

Thanks again for all the warm welcomes, y'all, and as well for the comments on identifying these beauties. I found another iris to compare with the tan ones, but there are no pictures on this database. If you're curious, search up "Sandalwood.' The limited amount of pictures of it make me curious, but what I have seen looks so strikingly similar to what I have. Perhaps I could upload one of mine under the 'Sandalwood' iris for the database? Who knows!

Thanks again, everyone!

Kent, our moderator, has recommended that we not upload any irises that we are not sure of the identification. I think it would be best to get one Sandalwood from a reliable member here, or a reliable iris vendor (not ebay or Amazon), and compare to be certain. Then you will know for sure, and won't have a possibly misleading picture in our database.

No worries on that! He can be assured that until I can prove that what I have is what I think I have, I won't be posting misleading pictures into the database. There are some new irises recently purchased that when they bloom, I can upload to the database as I know exactly what they are, (one of which is Deborah Dances, that doesn't have an image on the database) but that's to come in the near future!

SANDALWOOD

You're onto something, Arlyn and I quite like it. Those look exactly like mine. However, I'd need to buy some Sandalwood to compare to what I have and see if they're the exact same. If so, I've figured one of the mysteries out!

Thanks for struggling with your internet to help me! (I hope it gets better for ya!)

If you remind me in the spring, with a T-mail, I *may* have a chunk to share with you. If nothing jumps up and kills it, anyway .

I will try and remember myself. It could be a good trade, as I have a TON, and I mean a TON of noIDs that look exactly like Sandalwood. I'll keep that in mind!

Whatever mine are, they're around 40 inches with some fairly strong stalks and a very, very vigorous grower (perhaps around 100 fans for just one of four segmented areas in our yard that have these). I've seen as low as 20 inches, and one bloom, to an unmeasured height probably around 40 inches with three stalks and around 8-10 blooms per the season. This year, there were probably around 50 different stalks and most of them produced two-three branched stalks. First bloom was May 2nd, and I did not catch the end of them as because of a trip. Most of them had finished blooming, but some really late stalks came up around May 10th, and they were not done blooming when we left around the 16th of May. Interesting.....

I perhaps didn't have to go into further detail like this, but it could light something up. Does this sound like Sandalwood to you?

Monty.

I unfortunately can't help with identifying any of your irises, but it is very nice to see that you treasure these older irises and keep growing them in your yard. .

Thank you William! I treasure them enough to take a task to ID them (and I have wanted to ID them for so very long). Especially ones like my yellows and pinks that really have started to be multiplied out. Those tan (Sandalwood?) and the purple/white bitone (Helen Collingwood?) really, really are vigorous.