HIST: Cemetery Iris and Pumila Atroviolacea

Last year I posed a question as to the possible identity of a small
cemetery iris that was planted in 1919 in a country cemetery and has
survived with no care, no extra water, and the droughts and extreme winters
of northern Montana.  The suggestion from the group replying was I. Pumila
Atroviolacea.  I ordered rhizomes from Winterberry Gardens in Virginia.
The rhizomes were very petite when they came, but I planted the rhizomes
and the cemetery iris which were also single or at the most two rhizomes
hooked together.

Both the cemetery and named iris bloomed.  I would say the colors were the
same--beards, falls, standards, etc.  Winterberry calls the color of the
beard fuzzy white.  I would say it is fuzzy light blue or perhaps it is the
purple that gives it the blue cast.  HOWEVER, the growth pattern is not the
same.  The cemetery iris at bloom was 1 1/2 inches taller.  The leaves are
taller and wider.  This iris did not come from the cemetery this year, but
had been brought into town and received more water and better soil.  But
the Winterberry iris would also have been under cultivation.  The cemetery
iris bloomed six days earlier.  So is it P. atroviolacea?  Is it just a
difference in climates it came from?  Winterberry lists the height at 3
inches.  My cemetery iris at bloom was 4 3/8 while the Winterberry one was
2 1/2.

I have a photo I can post; I don't have a web page.  I don't think that it
is anything you want in the archives.  Where should I post it or will that
even help. 

I also ordered two rhizomes of the historic Honorabile from Winterberry.
Both bloomed and the height of the tallest stalk with bloom was 17 inch.
The catalog doesn't list a height so I don't know how that compares as far
as the growth pattern. 

Please don't tell me I need to wait another year or two to be certain. 

Karen, Zone 3, northern Montana, USA 
Fancy Dress, Codicil, Royal Chant, Wild Ginger, and variegated are blooming
  Rosemary's Dream was a favorite   

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