Historic Iris Swap Anyone?

Oh, my so many pretty ones. Count me in for a box of old purple iris. These are at least 40 years old or more. Think they may be the Germanica. will find pic tomorrow... yawn.
thanks mamajack for sending me here to neal.....LOL

Elaine

I don't even know if this a historic or a species. It's only 14-15" tall. I'd probably have to pay someone to take it away, or have DH take it back to the dump where he found it. ^_^

noooooooooooooooooooo, happy jackmom. hehehe i am mamajack. let me guess. you have a son named jack too? do not throw that iris away. it is beautiful and i know i want one.

looky there, georgia has arrived. lol.

Me too count me in for one of those! 14 inches tall and BLUE does it get better than that...lol

Happyjackmom,
They are lovely and I for one would love to have some and probably some of the other fine people on here too. Scroll up and take apeek at my white/yellow one, blooms are huge and guess where it came from? A landscape dump! That one is my all-time favorite, well almost Chareuse Chalice is my first.

Judy, ya got it exactly right :-) ...oh, but if you don't have enough to send in 3's, singles are fine too. Some participants prefer to receive them in 3's and I'll pack them that way when getting everyone's boxes together.

Elaine, welcome aboard!

HappyJackMom, I love those! That height would be great in the middle of the border, and love that deep color. It looks more blue than purple in the pic, is that accurate?

Neal

Could that be Easter Bonnet above? I have one very similar that is E. Bonnet.

I love that deep color too Neal.

Thanks for the welcome. Love that blue/purple one HappyJ,,, don't dare throw them away. Your hubby found them at the dump??? I would be glad to take them off your hands..

Elaine

Wow, I didn't expect the interest in this little iris. I don't care for the little iris, but love the TBI & would consider a trade later in the summer for TBI. These look purple to me, but guess some could call them blue. The camera seems to pick up the color right. In the sun light, it appears that the standards are a lighter shade than the falls. The beards fade to white at the tip. The flowers are of a poor substance and the wind blows them around, so it's real hard to get a good photo of them. I can cut one and try to get a different prospective for you. They are hardy, I can say that, this past winter we had wind chills down to -17° with 71 mph wind gusts. So I'm not sure if they grow taller than that in a good year.

Mamajack, no I don't have a son named Jack, we live in Happy Jack, AZ. ^_^

well i'll be. never knew that. have to tell my son. we have a friend that calls him happy jack. and girl if it's got a flower it's a good plant. lol.

Another photo of the little guy. In this photo it looks closer to a lavender, so don't know if it's me or the camera. It has 3-4 buds per stalk.

NOID

That's pretty HappyJ.
Here is pic of old iris I have.

Elaine

HappyJackMom, I see the purple in the indoor pic, probably sort of a violet purple. You can specify on your enclosed list that you'd prefer to receive back tall varieties from the swap.

Hey, I was at Mom's yesterday for a cookout. She had lots of short yellow ones blooming. they have the veining near the center. I know they are old because I cannot remember a Spring without them. Hers need to be divided again so I can add those to my send list. I didn't have my camera.
Anyone have a clue what they might be. The yellow is pretty bright, but small. The are more like an intermediate plant.
Teresa

Here is my "Florentina" (Orris Root)

Hey!!! bluegrassmom...surely you aren't saying you're old!! ("I know they are old because I cannot remember a Spring without them.") None of us would be "old" until maybe we couldn't crawl out to dig in our gardens anymore!! LOL!! I have 'English Cottage' if someone might be interested in that one.

That is the only one besides pallida that I know I have at least three of.

The older diploid TBs are shorter than the modern tets. It may be an intermediate iris as well.

So wish I could participate but have only Indian Chief. Have enjoyed all the pictures and the chat. Which has been worth it. Besides don't know where I would put them. LOL Here are my Indian Chief! The smell is wonderful!

This is one of the oldies I have posted different times. About 30" +/- 3" tall depending
upon the location. Not sure of it's pedigree since I found it naturalized.

That looks like the yellow one my aunt had when I was growing up!

I would like to participate also have a few noids but I think they are historics.
I just joined HIPS today I feel like I should start helping save some of the older Irises. I work in Marietta OH. it is a very old community with alot of historic old houses in it. I have spotted a couple of beds of old irises and I am thinking of knocking on a few doors to see if I could get some rhizomes this summer.

A lot of people would thank you for your efforts. There appears to be a resurgence in
interest in the old irises. I am trying to collect a few of the very old ones.

oh, taj, would that i were there to go with you. i love that old yellow one. how beautiful.

oldgardenrose....i only wanted new iris. got a whole bunch of them and guess what.......the few old iris i have out there stand out more than the new ones. their color and simplicity make them almost appear to be wildflowers.

At first I thought this one I've got was the same as some pics posted, but now I'm unsure. There are subtle differences in so many. These are more blue than purple to my eye, and tall, about 36-40". They're deeper blue than the pallidas I see a lot of, and multiply fast- I was given a bag full in '07 and have loads of them now!

I've got quite a few of these too. They're tall, about 40" or more, and have large blooms and lots of them.

This one is more purple, and I'm thinking it may be I.germanica?

I hope you can get an ID Neal it is a pretty one. I found Mom's little yellow iris on the Iris City Gardens website. They have some very old ones. It is named Honorable Lemon 1840. Yellow with maroon veining.

These are more blue than purple to me. They remind me of the pallidas, but with much larger blooms and very tall.

I'll check them out Teresa- thanks! I like the name 'Honorable Lemon'

I am off work today and would love to drive down again for a visit. We went a few year's back.

To Iris City Gardens? Oh, what a fun tour! I'd love that, sounds like great fun! Be sure to take a camera :-)

Neal,
If you can, go to HIPS and look at the photos of 'Missouri' and 'Frank Adams' and compare those photos to your first two posted photos. I know how hard it is to compare iris by photo, but maybe it might help you since you have them right in front of your eyes for comparison to the HIPS photos.

Nana3

Thanks Nana! I'm off to check that out!

Nana, I think you hit the nail on the head with Frank Adams! (the beige and burgundy one)

The blue one doesn't have the brown on the hafts that HIPS describes and shows. I guess its the little details like that that make the difference when trying to id these. I've been trying to get some good detail shots for comparing.

That 4th pic I posted looks like it could be 'Blue Rythm'

...or 'El Capitan' ....hmmmm?

I think Blue/Purple iris are the hardest to id. I have a couple in my old historic iris that have been hard...like the one posted below. It has been suggested to me that it might be 'Missouri', but the hafts are too dark and more pronounced in the coloring. My grandmother was known to have done some cross-pollination and I am beginning to wonder if this is one she may have crossed.

Nana3

Note: Honorabile is the name of the iris--Lemon (with French punctuation which I don't have) is the hybridizer. I. germanica is the species name--actually a very early mistake--as it is sterile. The older purples with their papery spathes are pallidas. Very early shorter yellow & red ones are I.variegata, so that the color description of the yellow standards & red falls is known as that. A great deal of combination & recombination brought out hidden colors, producing the great number of colors now present.