Which iris is this?

Given to me as "old fashioned iris". Fast grower. Leaves tall and twice as wide as my JI's. Same plot as my JI's. Likes wet soil and fertilizer.

I'm going to say versicolor.

I was hoping it was I.virginica known in Illinois as 'Blue Flag' although I think blue flag is almost a generic term for a lot of blue, water loving iris.

Blue flag normally is versicolor. Can also be virginica, like you said.

It could be virginica, but I'm thinking versicolor. Versicolor and virginica are nearly indistinguishable. Virginica has hairs on the signals, and the standards are usually the same size as the falls. That's really about the only difference. And yours appears to have shorter standards than falls, but it could be the angle of the picture.

So, if the standards are shorter than the falls, and ithe signal is hairless, probably versicolor.

I will check a little closer tomorrow. Your's is the first definitive, simple way to tell them apart. The only info I have is versicolor has a more northern range than virginica. I am slowly getting away from the common TB's and more into the JI's and Sibs since they are a lot less trouble to maintain.

You're right, versicolor is more hardy than virginica, but not by an awful lot. In fact I have a customer in Alaska, and not on the coast, growing virginica Contraband Girl. He is zone 3a, and it made it throught the winter just fine.

That's exactly why I grow the siberians and Japanese, Jerry. And there are so many other beardless to try.

I think IrisMA once told us that versicolor was a host plant for iris borer, or some other pest. She'll have to tell us more about that. if you're going to grow bearded and beardless together, it might be helpful. .

Here's a photo of one of my iris virginicas. It doesn't look it from the angle of the pic, but the standards and falls are actually almost exactly the same length. And it does have the hairs on the signal.

The standards are no more than 2/3 the length of the falls. A lot of yellow pollen on the falls but no hair was visible. I will go with versicolor. Thank you for the explanation. So far, there is only one blossom but there are several bloom stalks on the three small clumps. These clumps increase in size at about the same rate or more as the JI's.

I think we're right on versicolor.