i'd like to 'rescue' good iris that are not in catalogs.....

First: Dave approved this message!

I would like to find registered, named, beautiful, healthy, vigorous iris that are not currently commercially available and (this is the part I needed Dave to approve) purchase them with the intent of growing them out and eventually offering them for sale.

I know many iris have been registered and are no longer for sale for good reasons: poor form, bad growth habits, difficulty acclimating in different parts of the country. I don't want them. I'm not interested in an across the board rescue mission here....that's how I've ended up with so many barn cats.......sigh.

But I do think there are wonderful iris out there, being lovingly tended by just a few gardeners, that are not in any catalogs or websites, and if we as an iris community are not careful we run the risk of losing them for good. I've spoken to a few hybridizers who feel that some of their best work might have been a little ahead of the curve in terms of form or color, and might have been better received had it been released a few years later - and so now some of those iris are no longer available commercially, but they're lovely, and ought to have a chance to be seen again. The iris I'm seeking do not have to be historic - just interesting ones that for whatever reason don't seem to be readily available.

It's a little too late in the season this year unless someone could move on this very quickly. Perhaps if nothing in your garden comes to mind right now, you could keep this request in mind and contact me next summer. I honestly don't know what kind of response this will get, so I'm going to cast the net out now and see what happens......perhaps someone would like to contact me and sell me some immediately, maybe no one will, maybe there will be so many responses we'll have to postpone some a season and I'll wonder what on earth I've gotten myself into this time.

Here's my criteria: To the best of your knowledge, the variety is not commercially for sale (I don't expect anyone to pore over every possible catalog, and I'd do some checking too before we made a decision). It's a beautiful iris - I realize that's subjective, but at the very least, I don't want any that are extremely thin-petaled because they won't hold up well here at all, and in general I'm more interested in TB's than smaller ones. The variety must be registered, you must be very sure it's correct, and preferably you'd have a picture you could send me. I'd like to purchase three rhizomes and in the course of our Dmails I've give you the price I have in mind, which would also cover shipping. You'd send the iris reasonably soon or we'd wait until next summer, as my preference is to have all my planting done here by Sept 15.

I've been trying to locate iris that fit these parameters by travelling to different club sales, but that's logistically a bit difficult as they tend to be at the same time of the year. Any other suggestions or comments about this project, posted here or through Dmail, will be gratefully considered!

katie

It might help people if you have a list of some you're looking for. Most of us here probably have newer ones. I do have quite a few from the 60's from my mother that I'm identifying as she finds the paperwork (fortunately, she never throws anything out.....just takes a while to locate things....lol).

I'd try e-mailing or contacting the local iris societies to have them ask their members, since as you state, there's no way to get to all the actual sales. They might even run a blurb in their newsletters.

Neil

Thanks, Neil, that's a good idea about contacting clubs directly.

I'm not particularly looking for historics, just for iris that aren't commercially available but are nice varieties. I think historics would actually be too difficult to verify - or at least, I don't have the expertise to do so.

It does raise interesting (and impossible) questions, though. Of the X number of iris that were registered in (just to pick a year) 1997, I wonder how many are still readily available? And assuming a certain percentage of them are not, were they all inferior iris that no one wants anyway, or are there some good ones out there that fell through the cracks?

Maybe - if I ever find a block of time - I'll pick one random page in the 90's registry and see how hard it is to find all the iris listed on it. That would hardly be a representative sample, but I'd still be curious about the outcome.

katie

Katie, one that comes to my mind but that might not fit your criteria is Iris pallida. The various variegated forms are available, but not the plain green leaved one. Lots of people have them, but they are hard to find commercially. If this is one you would like to offer, I would gladly send for shipping cost. Polly

Katie,
I have one named 'Rhapsody in Blue'. It couldn't be until next year though. I had mentioned it and no one had been able to find it. I bought it at Nola's two years ago I think.

What you are doing is very noble and quite an exciting project. I'm very bad about remembering things though. Could you post again next year?

Thanks to everyone who has posted and Dmailed thus far re this project. I'm answering the posts with offers through Dmail out of deference to the etiquette rules on the site. The input has been incredible and I have received great advice about the project so far. Now if someone could just figure out how to put a few more hours in my days so I could get it all done.....

katie

I love to have iris in my garden that no one else is growing. The older varities are tougher than many of the iris now sold.