Can anyone ID this iris?

Can anyone ID this old fashioned iris? It's intermediate in height, reblooms all winter here in zone 9, purple self, yellow beard with white tips. I have some to trade, too, for other reblooming iris.

Thank you!

Very nice Iris. Would love to know the name also.

Hello Rebloom nut!

If you are interested in my iris at all, I would be happy to trade you for a fan of your daylily 'Papaya Parfait'. Send me a d-mail if you would like to trade.

I'd been looking at your have and want list, mostly because of your screen name. I'm kind of a rebloom nut myself. You have a lot of new iris and I might be interested in some of them when they have grown enough for trade. I'm also checking out your want list to see if you have any wants that I'd like to add to my tradelist as well. A nice selection, it will take me a while to investigate them thoroughly.

Carol

I have been updating my have list and may have a few on their on my want list yet but will get to it this week. I would love to trade but would spring be ok for the DL. It is getting late enough here I hate to disturb it before it cools down. What do you think?

Yes, Spring is fine for our trade. I hope that one of us can remember by then! :-) I'll have lots more iris by then, Dave's is a great site. One person is even sending me 7 named iris for nothing.

Have a nice holiday,
Carol

Really need a better focused pic but it looks very similar to one of mine. I have no id
for it but there was a number of postings on a previous thread describing it. Mine has
a distinctive sweet fragrance and is an early bloomer. No indication of being a
rebloomer.

I think you iris is I.germanica 1753 traced back to the 1500s as sweet iris. Hope this helps. BEV

Sweet Fragrance. Bet it would make a nice cross with a newer Iris to pick that up along with that pretty white beard.

That would be something!!!!

I have probably a half dozen of different colored beards and shades of color of the
falls and standards but they all follow the germanica pattern. Polly gave me an iris
which is supposed to be a verified species I.germanica. It is very close to the one
in the picture.

The problem with crossing these old irises with the modern hybrids is most of the
oldies are diploid where the newer ones are tetraploids. I was told that crossing
them results in a sterile triploid which ends the hybridizing chain. Of course, you
could get lucky and come up with that rare one of a kind.

I found this one naturalized along an obscure township back road.

Also the other problem with going very old to newer is that it throws more the old form and more irisians want newer more ruffled form. I have seen I pallid. crossed with newer one think it was Edith Wolford and it took, what bloomed was BAD form, color, little or no branching.

D

Oh well, It was just a thought.

I think more emphasis is being placed upon trying to add the oldie traits of hardiness
and disease resistance to the moderns but it is by highly sophisticated methods far
above the ability of the average gardener. They are able to change the genetic
makeup by adding certain chemicals such as colchicine to change a diploid to a
tetraploid.

I plan to experiment with crosses within the diploid family such as this purple with
yellow, white or blue varieties. I also really like an iris with fragrance.

The fragrance and hardiness Etc. being brought back into play with the crossing was what I was thinking too. It will be very interesting to see how it works for you.

It might be Eleanor Roosevelt. It is an IB RE, 1936. Here (zone 8) it tries to rebloom anytime from November on. It is prolific and likes part shade in my backyard. Check out the DG plant files.

Peg

I thought of ER, but that one is a much darker purple.

Peg probably found it. HIPS has ER as Sass-McDade 1933. Rebloomer. The
description says a "heavy blue beard" but the pics show a white-tipped beard.
No mention of fragrance.

My iris is more purple than the photo shows. Sorry, it's slightly out of focus, too. I looked up the iris germanica, and it fits the description and picture. They say the color varies greatly, but the other details on the plant, especially the leaf bracts at the junction of flowering stems match up. I had no idea that there were so many details to look
at - some of it I didn't understand so I need to learn at the parts of the plant to make sure. Any, thanks to all who shared their input!

Carol

Regardless of the exact cultivar name, it is one of the old irises worth preserving.
Please let me know if you decide to dig and divide it.

I have checked with our local experienced AIS judge and we are sure that my pictured iris is Eleanor Roosevelt, IB, RE. It has a white beard. I have seen photos online where an iris will appear to have one blue beard on a fall and the other two falls will be white. The shades and reflections of photography make it appear blue. Eleanor Roosevelt has been so prolific, fun to give away and a hoot to take blooms to the iris club Christmas party!

Good luck IDing your iris.

Peg