Iris lost label

[JohnnyD]

When Clare grows plants from seed - and it takes a long time - it is pretty certain that the label is either washed off or lost all together.
This Iris suddenly opened after growing into quite a substantial 12" high clump since it was sown in 2008, but with no label at all.
Can anyone recognise it?
JohnnyD

[mark smyth]

what height is it?

[JohnnyD]

It's about 12" Mark.
J.

[Lesley Cox]

Do you mean sown or planted Johnny? If sown - as seeds - it will have no name but your Clare has come up with a particularly fine Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris. At least one parent would have been similar, probably named and also good. Grow this on for a couple of years and if it is vigorous, disease-free and free-flowering, you could consider naming it (registering through BIS probably), while remembering that there are many with similar colouring and form already in the commercial world. In any case, it is a lovely plant.

[Lesley Cox]

Sorry, I'm not reading properly. You say it is from seed, so the rest applies.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Another lost label Iris, not from seed. Can anyone identify?

[Lesley Cox]

Mmmm... well, one of very many in that colour range. Whatever else I've learned, I've learned that when there is an American plant, there is certainly another identical in appearance, from the UK, from France and probably Italy, from Australia and even from New Zealand nowadays. Breeders follow similar lines and achieve similar results so naming an unknown form is really almost impossible without further information about age, origin etc. For this reason it's a good plan to keep old catalogues and make notes of everything you acquire from whatever source. There were some truly beautiful standard dwarfs in a botanic garden in Prague recently, every one a gem yet all similar to others from various sources I've seen in the last year or three, They were, I think, all newly planted varieties (and I suspect of American origin, from the names), as each had just a single stem of bloom. The iris planting of which they were a part was large and well planned and in a week or two when the talls are out will be a magnificent sight for the iris lover, the more so in a year or two as the plants mature.