Marilyn,
This topic has been discussed many times with no resolution as of yet. HIPS database will be inundated as more of the 80's irises become "historic." It was discussed on the HIPS forum within the past year. It seems that there are very opinionated views from AIS and others regarding this topic for whatever reason. A sliding scale to increase the 30 years to a longer period was one of the suggestions, but was made to no avail. So I think we will be stuck with that somewhat arbitrary cutoff for longer.
I suppose the thought is that in plant life having any particular variety around for 30 years is "historic," but I am with you feeling that the cutoff should be 50 years or something else. My own garden of historics is mostly made up of those older than 1950, so my cutoff is at 64 years now, 65 next year, etc.
Dave
