Irises: ID Needed, 0 by hespiris

hespiris wrote:
Hello mnorberry,

There were numerous old purples, though fewer of those had/have the white (or bluish white) beard. In reading old literature, I’m often impressed with just how many varieties there were - it would be nice to be able to identify those still remaining like the two you have.

Of those we do currently have an ID of AND you can purchase from a place you will get the right one, ‘Eleanor Roosevelt’ would be a good one to buy - I would suggest you purchase it from Superstition as they excel in correctness.

'Eleanor Roosevelt' can be about 10"; I. germanica would be 8-12" taller than it. The IB vs. TB on very old historics goes much more to bloom time than to height as they were a ‘designer class’ created to fill the bloom time between Dwarfs and Tall in the gardens of the time (1900-1915ish)

In my garden I have one circulated as 'Black Magic' (which should have an orange beard), and 'Eleanor Roosevelt'. I'm posting a picture I took of them - with a properly labeled ER on the right - it’s so hard to tell most times… even with the labels! In the back left of the picture, is an I. germanica of sorts.


To my eye, I see no real difference that could not be explained simply to age of bloom - and just the slight difference in angle to the camera/sun makes the colors look very different. Good luck in your ID hunting,
hespiris