3 I need help putting names to

I am trying to come up with the names for each of my iris this year and know some of them but there are about 10 that I have no idea. If you get sick of doing this just stop giving me answers and that is fine just post nothing and I will shift to "plan B". I just would like to put names to all my iris this year. Anyway, here is the first that is blooming now. I had called this one Prissy Miss in years past but it seems darker than the ones here and it seems to have a very light blue streek that you can just detect. You can make it out on the pic about as well as you can standing in front of the bloom.

The 2nd one is kind of plane with shades of yellow and the bloon is very smooth.

This message was edited Apr 15, 2009 5:38 PM

OK #3 is a very nice one but no ideas here.

oh dear, greg. you do know how common these colors are, right?

could be dozens of different ones. there's just no way from pinks like that to tell - maybe one of 30 or 40, if it's even a registered name. I've seen 100's of pink seedlings (unnamed) like that - same on the pale cream or yellow.

you might have a chance on the 3rd one of getting it down to maybe 2 dozen names.

Hmmm, would you suggest that I give up on this naming business. It was my plan to put taggs on them with numbers for each I have so I would know what they look like when they are not blooming so I can trade with others. Do you think I would just be better off calling them the pinkish one, yellow, etc...?

it took me 20 years (before the Internet) to find iris people to talk to. I've heard the question over and over, "I have the pink one, what's the name?" there's no way to explain it. I spout off 20 names, remembered off top of my head, and their eyes glaze over - there's a lot more than 20! factor in the culture and soil will change the colors, oh dear!

DG iris folks would tell you yes - a lot of us want a correct name, and if you can't guarantee 100% accuracy, we'd rather know that.

irisloverdee is a master AIS judge. look around the other threads and check what she says about the pink iris judges' test. She says the only way to tell for certain is to buy the one you think it is and grow them side by side.

there's unnamed seedlings reproducing similar to yours too. with specific details (detail crisp photos - not like these posted), we won't ever be able to tell you for certain unless the blooms are unique, like a Decadence is. twenty years from now, hybridizers will have worked with similar irises to the point that Decadence wont' be unique anymore...

This message was edited Apr 15, 2009 8:39 PM

Well, I did not think this would be easy but it never crossed my mind that it is impossible. I guess I will leave this to the pros, just call mine by color, and give up on the idea of trading for new varieties to my garden. Maybe Craigslist is a better place for people like me. This does not take anything away from enjoying them every spring.

Gregpap, I too have some unknown iris. I love them for their bloom regardless of the names. I am being very dilligent in keeping all my new purchases labeled however. Don't want them to become unknowns. You have some beauties there! Enjoy them.

yes! exactly! enjoy them! and lots of folks don't mind not knowing the names. it's mostly the hard core iris folks, and gardeners that like the unusual that are picky about names!

Hey Greg !!!! Lots of folks will trade for NOID iris. I have and will continue to do so if I like it. The important thing is that you mention that it is an unknown, for those to whom it is important. Hybridizing come to mind as one of the reasons to know who is who.
When labeling my known cultivars, I now put a label under the clump in addition to the one I can see. Tags break, get lost, hooves move them around, inks fade, etc.
If you like it, someone else will also. Especially if it is a prolific rhizome maker, has long lasting blooms, is scented, etc etc.

yes, I'm hybridizing, and many of the best hybridizers won't even use a named iris if it has an unknown iris in it's heritage, because they want to know all the possible genetics.

Greg, what I did long, LONG ago about 18-20 years ago, I would buy the mart iris and 90% of the time they are NOT what they say. I had some drop dead beautiful ones and I still have a couple of them even with being in business but how I label it, color of standards, fall color, beard color, height whether is TB or median and then gave it a number, Such as Pink S, Pink F, Red B, TB and number 1NOID, that way if a person just had to have it, I let them know up front that I did not know its true name..

Many gardeners are trying to ID from pictures and honestly I will not even attempt, because with being in OR I tour my gardens, Schreiners, Cooleys, Mid America, Keith Keppel every year and see so many that could be maybe...no probably not.

But you do have some really lovely ones there, and suggest Craigs list all through here plants sit and do nothing, Farmers Market, Friends, Garage Sales, etc.

Enjoy and good luck

D

At our iris sales in Tulsa, the ones that go the fastest are the ones that we sack up and sell for landscaping. Some may have names but we don't know them and the people don't care.

I have some that I bought at sales that had a name, they bloomed but the name was not accurate. So at present they are in my orphan boxes, and as they bloom will try to identify, Some I'll keep because I like it and some with go to landscape sacks. When we had the ice storm here a couple of years ago, some were scattered around, but most of them are starting to bloom now, and I keep records of all I've had, and am trying to identify them. And I take lots of photos. And the bloom if possible to the club's experts.

last year, I bought over 200 irises. after I planted them, some deer (it or they left hoofprints!) yanked some up. we found them piled in a small pyramid next to the mailbox! I think a neighbor saw them and got them out of the road. either that, or we have OCD deer around here....

most were IDed from unique blooms. 5 bloomed pink - and I didn't know which is which! had to buy all five again. LOL waiting to see what is what this year.

Thanks for all the help! I think I am going to make my iris garden an all NOID garden. I have even pulled up the tags on the ones I know. If you ask me tagging is for the birds. My kids and I have even been experimenting with some hybridzing (just for fun) but anything new we can get to grow are going to be NOID as well and I am good with that. Having only been doing the iris thing about 5 years now I am fairly new to this but I do enjoy our iris garden and it is something my daughters and I can work on together. I had just hoped to trade off some of the ones we have too much of and it was looking like I would need names to do this but now I am having some luck finding people who don't know or care what they have on craigslist so this is the way to go for us I think. I do forsee a problem down the road when we have our good sized iris garden full and needing to be devided and then there being a lot of people who don't want them for lack of names but that is way down the road as we have only been able to about half fill the area of our yard we have set aside for an iris garden so far and when we can cross that bridge when we get to it. Surely we will be able to find homes for them.

If I was to guess I'd say #1 might, might be "Prissy Miss", and #3 "Change of Pace".

Prissy Miss

Change of Pace.

The most important thing to remember is that its YOUR garden and should please you. If you don't want tags then don't have them. The flowers will be just as beautiful and the garden alot less work.

I am just getting into iris but have daylilies. Before I got the daylily crazies, I never marked anything. But 3 years ago, when the daylily bug bit me, I did mark all my daylilies. I like to take and post pictures of them and need to be able to say what they are. But most people in daylilies use those markers that stick up and are printed in a computer and put them were they are easy to see. Not for me, I hate the look of markers, I just want to see garden. So I use 8 inch white plastic rapiclip plant markers in which I write the name of the daylily in permanent marker. They come in plastic bags of 30 and I buy them on line. They are barely noticeable but I can peer at them if I need to check on a name of the daylily.

Something I have noticed is that if the markers are pushed were the writing is into the ground they fade quickly. But if the writing part is above the ground and mulch, they are not fading.

I plan to use the same system on my new Siberian iris coming next week. But the marking system is still afair amount of work as you have to write out markers for each new plant.

I think you'll find lots of people right here on DG that will trade for NOIDS. I've traded for many. In fact I've seen pictures of some I loved with no names, and begged to get them.

I keep tags on many of mine, but I have many without them.

So was that plan B, to just pull the tags? I say go for it, and just enjoy them.

Oh Gregpap, please don't pull the labels you do have! If you want to hybridize your iris, it would be a terrible mistake not to know the parentage of a beautiful iris you couldn't patent. How wonderful it would be for your children to have a parents name on a wonderful new cross. It is very interesting to keep records on ones own genealogy as it would for the plants or animals you may have. I found that out as a young mother when we raised Siamese cats. Later the same with Chinchillas. The idea of cross breeding is to improve the breed, no matter what it is. If you take two short, ugly, prone to root rot iris and have to wait the two years or so before the offspring bloom. You will probably end up with what you started out with. What a disappointment that would be for your children, and yourself. So keep all your beautiful iris NOID & named and enjoy them. Those of us on this forum just want to help you understand why it's important to keep them labeled. I'm sure all of us have NOIDed iris in our gardens from lost or broken labels, I know we do too. So, have fun and hugs to you for getting your children interested in gardening. It's a wonderful hobby that will last them a lifetime.

~ now she gets off her soap box and slithers out into the garden ~