Lyn brought up the idea of getting the AIS or clubs or whatever to preserve/sell some of these disappearing irises.
Daylily lovers have long had a recourse/alternate source in the form of the Lily Auction, where you can look for/find/buy both plants no longer in (regular) commerce, as well as seeds (from designated crosses).
https://daylily.com/cgi-bin/au...
I was surprised to find that there really wasn't something similar in the iris world.
Granted it's something of a mishmash, because you have both small commercial growers and people selling out of their back yards. It is also pretty much a matter of Buyer Beware, both for the quality of the plants (can you trust the seller, are his plants good sized and true-to-name?) but also in avoiding the dreaded daylily rust (what is the seller's reputation there, and/or does the plant come from the north (where rust may be winter killed) or does it come from the Rust Belt?).
But, this system works. It HAS worked for many years now. Some of my daylilies were obtained from that site. (Yes, some worked out, some didn't, but when a plant is hard to find elsewhere, the system works. Sometimes you just have to have patience waiting for that particular plant to pop up, but there is even a mechanism there, iirc, to put feelers out. (It's been some years now since I've bought any more daylilies.))
So maybe the iris society, as a whole, could get its act together and do something similar?
Sorry to keep hijacking your thread, Brad. That blue seedling is great.
