Hello,
Looking for a name of this bearded iris I had back in 1985-1995. The color in the picture is true to life, beautiful blue/purple color with white, blooms were very large. Thank you!

Moving this to the Iris forum - you might get more answers there.

Often it is very difficult to conclusively ID an Iris from photos. Without the original plant, I'm afraid the best you might get is a list of lookalikes.

It's really hard to get any definite answer from this picture. Details like the beard aren't discernible.. But I can throw out a suggestion of an Iris that looks similar. Victoria Falls was very popular, and won the Dykes medal.. It's still it available from growers..

kiernanpigmailcom, you describe this flower as blue/purple, though the photo shows it almost turquoise. That contradiction makes it more difficult to suggest an ID.

The approximate hight of the bloom and is there a scent also helps to narrow down possible choices. Also, does it.bloom early/mis/late in the season.

Aside from the fact that kiernanpigmailcom's picture is sort of turquoise, and accepting his/her dscriptor as blue/purple, I think that Sherry's recent posting of "Suky" in the side bar looks a whole lot like this one. Like the poster's picture, it has a larger spot of white on the falls than does Victoria Falls. So I don't think VF is it. More likely Suky or something related to it.

Suky was introduced in 1991, though, and if the poster is accurate about getting his/hers in 1985, then it might be one of Sukys parents or grandparents instead.

Suky's parents were Victoria Falls and Violet Miracle. Violet Miracle does not really have the white spot, but Victoria Falls does have one. So if your dates are correct, I am following Sherry's reasonng as to why it mght be Victoria Falls. And indeed a few of the photos in the database for VF do show it having a larger than usual white spot. So maybe. But frankly, I still think it looks more like Suky. Could you have gotten it in 1991 or soon thereafter?

Thank you all!

Hello, I spoke to my mother who is having me send this post, she said it was not purple but more like the blue often associated with the Blessed Mother. I apologize for any confusion. She recalls the blooms were very large & there were many on the plant. She d not recall when it bloomed ir the exact year. Thank you for all this great information!

I am wondering if it could be City Lights.

See the photos of that at Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'City Lights') .

Its not as aqua as your picture shows, but the aqua leaves in your photo prove there is a bit of an unrealistic aqua cast to the photo. Iris leaves are gray-green, not aqua. So next spring when the iris blooms, hold your photo up against your mom's plant for comparison. I think you'll see there is an aqua cast to the leaves in your photo, and therefore an aqua cast to the bloom, too.

Here is a photo of city lights that shows pretty accurately the true gray-green color of iris leaves. Click on it to open the photo. Compare that with the leaves in your photo.
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I thought of City Lights, too, when I saw the picture. Did your mom's iris ever rebloom in the late summer or fall?

When I replanted many iris to my new house 3years ago, I couldn't keep track of who went where. I have some blue, purple and bronze that came from Yosemite region 30 yrs. ago and a few I've acquired since then. Last year one iris in my front garden began blooming early November and didn't stop until a Feb. 14 cold, snowfall killed the blooms.
I've had a few that bloom in Fall or early winter for a short time, but never one that is constantly in flower for 4 months! Our central Texas winters can be mild with occasional freezes, so iris are usually spring bloomers here.

I wonder if this is common for certain varieties and what would they be named. Photos are from Nov. 3, 2020, as of today, 11/12/2021, there are 5 buds partly open on this plant. Of course I divided it after the freeze and now have about 5 plants. Any info would be helpful. Thank you.

I think you may need to get better photos next year. When you do, try to get beard detail as well as measuring bloom height, and whether the spring bloom is early, mid, or late in comparison the the other irises where you live.

It looks like it has white standards and blue or purple falls, and there are so many irises like that. Daisy's suggestion is good. If you have a list of what irises you had--even if you don't remember where they got planted, that could help.

kiernanpigmailcom said:Hello,
Looking for a name of this bearded iris I had back in 1985-1995. The color in the picture is true to life, beautiful blue/purple color with white, blooms were very large. Thank you!

I think all of the guesses are, rightly, just guesses. I think the buds might be of help in your ID because they show the white spot prominently. City Lights IS a possibility but you will never know for sure unless you compare it in your garden (grow them side by side) with a known to be true City Lights.

I wanted to split off @rfreskos2attnet ID question along with the 2 replies since it's not related to the original post but @Lestv reply belongs to this thread and I can't separate it. Leslie, if it's OK, I would still like to split it, I can tag you to copy it from that new thread and back into here. Then I can delete it from the new thread.
Is that clear?!