Some very nice stories of your first iris purchases. I rented for many years, and had a long commute for 13 years. Gardening usually meant throwing in a few annuals in front of the house, along with a vegetable garden. When I bought this place in 1995, it had a few annuals in the garden in front of the house. About a year or two later, not sure now, I was at a garden center to pick up some annuals. I ran across a black iris in a pot that was in bloom. I thought that was nice, and so bought it and planted it in my flower garden in front of the house. It bloomed the next year too, then it died, so I thought. A couple of years later it came back and bloomed again, only now it was dark purple. Hmmmmm. I thought it had reverted or something. Now I figure it must have seeded a seedling, and that became my purple seedling. A year or two after that, I saw a rusty red one and bought it too. Of course it had a name, but I didn't get concerned about that. That one became my "famous" red NOID. Those were the only two Irises I had until I retired in. Later I saw Rare Treat blooming in a pot at anther garden center and liked it, so bought that one. I did keep the tag for that and kept it's name. I acquired Liaison the same way. A friend took me along to visit an iris garden in Illinois. The name of the place is Hornbachers. They had lots of other plants too, but the iris field was in bloom. I ordered $120. worth of rhizomes to be shipped later. When I got them I had prepared a new bed for them. Most of them were tiny little things smaller then my pinky, but I didn't know any better, thinking that's just how they came. It took most of them two years to bloom, and some as much as 4 years. I did an internet search for irises, and came across Schreiner's. I think I made two orders that year. One from the first catalog, and another from their sales catalog. The rest is history.
Here's a picture of Rare treat, the purple seedling, and Liaison taken back when they were 3 of the 4 I had. The Red NOID would have been left of them a ways, and didn't get into the picture. Notice the nice mulch around them !!!!
