Is this a Wabash?

I know it is hard to ID from pictures but I bought a house last fall and these beautiful guys came up this spring. I know next to nothing about irises. The clump was massive and I had to divide it after it stopped blooming because the middle was rotting. I got 30+ clumps and all the ones I kept and planted in different places are doing well. So now I think I caught the iris bug along with the daylily bug. I was told there are some Wabash lookalikes. What are they called so I can compare? Thanks!

Here is another picture a bit closer up.

Sure looks like Wabash to me.

Have you compared it to the pictures here on Daves?

I compared and they look pretty identical. I was excited because I love older varieties of all flowers. Thanks for looking.

According to HIPS, if it has pbf (purple base foliage) it is probably 'Wabash'. If not, it is probably 'Bright Hour' which is sometimes passed around as 'Wabash'.

Now if I only knew what purple base foliage was???? :-) I assume the leaves will have a purple tinge at the base??

I guess I will take a look at them tomorrow. Wish I knew how much purple to look for.

This message was edited Sep 2, 2010 8:48 PM

This is somewhat darker than average. The color can vary with season, temp, sunlight or a host of other things. It will be obvious though when you see it.

Purple based foliage means that at the base of the leaves there is a purple or reddish tint (or streaks) to the leaves. Mine looks most purple when the leaves are youngest.

Thank you so much for the picture. I don't remember them having that coloring when I divided it but it was a while ago. I am going to take a look at mine tomorrow to see if I have any hint of purple. Thanks again!

Guess we were answering at the same time! A picture does explain it much better!

Whether it is 'Wabash' or not, it is still a beautiful historic. I think 'Bright Hour' is from around 1952 or so which fits it into the historic class. If it were not too late in the season, I would beg some from you.

So I took some pictures today and I think it is a Wabash. The purple is very faint and not much of it but it is definitely there. What do you think?

Not an expert but I would call it 'Wabash'. Looks as though some of the leaves have been removed due to browning or falling. I do that with all the leaves which will come off easily. As db27 said, check it in the spring when all the leaves are fresh. Pbf does not in itself mean historic but simply a final mark to identify very similar colors. My first notice of pbf was 'Pass the Wine' which is definitely not a historic.

plb is not confined to historics, just a trait which could help in ID. I have 2 similarly colored MTB seedlings, one plb, one not. Helps ID when they are not in bloom.