Miniature Tall Bearded Iris, Historic Iris 'Gracchus'

The Iris is listed in the 1929 AIS checklist Gracchus TB-Y9L (Ware 1884) F.C.C 1885.
At the time the editors of the checklist used...Read More garden catalogues for information regarding early originator's, or who listed the cultivars in commerce.(This applies for entries prior to dates when registration forms were used by hybridisers to establish breeding facts).

So with this in mind there can be no surprise that Amos Perry writes in the BIS yearbook 1946, 'Past Present, and Future' page 110, "My father had always been very keen on Irises. He raised 'Gracchus' which received a First Class Certificate R.H.S.on 9th June, 1885. (It was also Highly Commended R.H.S 2nd June 1916)
Amos Perry joined his father working at Thomas S. Ware and was apprenticed to the firm at Tottenham in 1885.

I love this iris! I have it planted with slightly shorter fellow historic iris 'Eleanor Roosevelt.' 'Eleanor' is my first bearded iris ...Read Moreto bloom, flowering while this one is sending up its taller stalks, and this one follows shortly, usually blooming starting around Memorial Day for me. It produces an amazing amount of flowers for such a little plant, and they are produced on sturdy stems that don't bend at all in my windy garden despite often having four or five flowers on them. In addition, it bounced back from an iris borer infestation last year with little intervention on my part (all I did was cut off the worst part of the infestation) and is now more vigorous than ever.

Prolific little bloomer. Planted in April as a potted plant. Sent up 4 stalks and bloomed less than 6 weeks later!

This is a very,very old iris. Ware just happened to find(?) and describe it in the late 1880's. The general thinking is that all iris fo...Read Morerming the basis of the TB class were from I.variegata (of which Gracchus appears to be a naturally-occuring hybrid) and I. pallida, as well as natural interspecies hybrids formed between them.

Gracchus is a TB as they were classified in the early part of the 20th century, alebit a short one. At that time in the bearded class, there were mostly TB and a some DB.

Once intercontinential (European, Middle Eastern, North America) crossing really got underway, say 1920's-1930's, lots of interesting things popped up in the seedling beds, allowing for the median class to be developed; a serious contender as a seperate class by the early 1950's.

I think by today's standards, it would probably be an 'out-of-class' BB or even MTB as it's bloom time is with the other historic TBs.