@lovemyhouse - The space age iris were a new concept to me and I'm not sure that I can say I'm a fan of them... on the other hand, I did purchase a few white ones....they just somehow seemed frillier and fuller.
The problem with that seedling is that I'm not sure if I still have it. The pot that I thought it was in (it had a label), got moved (because it was in a somewhat shady location and did not bloom past the second year). When the iris in the moved pot bloomed last year (or maybe it was very early this year), it clearly was a different iris. (It was also a space ager, but the colors were awful.... tan, murky yellow, not at all pretty. Most likely it was another seedling, another one of the supposed-to-have-been 'Sweet Orange Spice', which is probably why there was confusion in the labels - I somehow labeled the wrong pot.)
The good news is that there was another (unlabeled) potted iris in that same location (I had yanked all of the 'Sweet Orange Spice' labels), that I more recently moved out into the sun. I may have to wait another year (ugh) to see if it is that pastel seedling or not, but wait I will.
(You may be wondering why all of these are in the shade to begin with. Sunny space is at something of a premium in my garden, and all incoming plants get potted up in a filtered shade part of the yard, and may reside there for some while, until they have grown big enough to bloom - and I have figured out a spot for them in the garden. Some of them do bloom in that shady location, which is great. Sometimes I have to put the pots out into the sun, but we don't like having a clutter of pots in that part of the garden. As to why the labeling issues... sigh... lots of reasons (er, excuses) there, but I am laboring to improve on that score.)
The funny thing is, I am not really a fan of NOIDs... I like to know who or what is in my garden. But sometimes you just have to make an exception; something about whichever plant, be it color or form or size or texture, just grabs you and won't let go. If I do recover that seedling (I probably won't know until next year, sigh), I will try to find a suitable spot to plant it out, and let it grow into a patch. At that point, I will decide if it is a long term keeper or not....NOID or not.
