New to the iris

Hello all,
I'm new to the iris having never purchased one, but somehow being the proud owner of many.

I don't know any of their names, though most(all?) are probably "old" ones.

I have one brown, several of the yucky (dare I say such a word here!) very hardy purple-ish multi-toneds ones, and one nice shade of solid pale purple.

Can anyone suggest a good reference book (with color pictures please) for a neophite like me good for ID-ing some of what I might have.

With nearly 60,000 registered irises on the books, identiying unknowns is a daunting, and often impossible, task. If you REALLY want to try to identify your unknown irises (assuming they're even registered cultivars, which they might not be), there are two articles on the HIPS site which I highly recommend you read. They will explain to you the process and difficulties of identifying unknown irises. Here are links to the articles:

http://www.worldiris.com/public_html/Frame_pages/ID.html

http://www.worldiris.com/public_html/Identification/Photo_ID1.html

The bottom line is that it's a whole lot easier to simply enjoy your irises without trying to attach names to them. If you want to grow named irises, purchase them from reputable sources and keep them marked and mapped in your garden.

Happy irising,

Laurie

Okey Dokey. No need for me to tackle the impossible. I'll just call the brown one "Brownie," and the others, "old garden irises" and let that be it.

I was thinking of actually buying some...gasp! I seem to like solid pastel colors I see in other's gardens. So where's a good place to get some from?

I'm glad that you're enjoying your Iris, no matter what their names are. You should post some photos of a few.

Darlene, there are some great iris vendors out there. I've ordered from Cooley's and Shriener's before and recieved great plants(bearded iris). If you really get the iris fever(you will, it's happened to many of us!), take a look at Iris City gardens site. They have a free catalog, but no pics. You can see most of them on the website though. There are many wonderful hierloom iris out there and I'd love to see pics of yours. I think I have some of the dull purple-ish you mentioned. They end up growing in the compost piles!

I have only one picture. It's of the brown one. Took it because I had never seen brown before, and I had never seen this one bloom before.

After looking at this picture through my browser it doesn't look as "brown" as it does in living color out of doors. I'll also poke around in my picture folders to see if perchance I can find any others.

This message was edited May 28, 2005 7:49 AM

I also like Sutton's and Enchanted April. For rebloomers, I like Nicholl's Iris Gardens.
By the way, I got a lot of my named irises last year from other DG members.

This message was edited May 29, 2005 7:51 PM

The old timer which was here when I arrived and now seems to have multiplied.

And the blue one.