Re: looking for historic bearded iris

posted for Dave Ferguson, DFerguson@cabq.gov

Hi,

I am a Curator at the Rio Grande Botanic Garden in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Most of the names you list are unfamiliar to me, but I have seen a few of
the names in catalogs; however, I do not remember which name was where.
While we do not have any of the Irises you are looking for, I have a couple
of suggestions for places you might check.

One is the Historic Iris Preservation Society, which has a web site that
can be easily located by searching for "HIPS Iris".  They have an annual
Historic Iris sale for members, but more importantly the members are
interested and dedicated to growing and preserving old Iris cultivars.
There are some links in the web sight that may lead you to other sources of
information as well.

Also with websites are Blue Cloud Iris Gardens in Idaho, and Riverview
Iris, also in Idaho.  Both have extensive collections and offerings of
Historic cultivars, and may be of help.

Winterberry Gardens, owned by Don and Ginny Spoon, at 1225 Reynolds Road,
Cross Junction, Virginia 22625, USA also have a large collectioin of
historic cultivars, but I think no web page.  Their e-mail address is
vspoon@aol.com.

I have also found a fair number of old cultivars at Iris Colorado, Argyle
Acres, and Iris City; all three with web sites.  On line searches for each
individual cultivar name may help locate some as well.  I suspect that they
will be more "findable" in Europe than in North America???

I am very interested in old bearded Iris cultivars and species, and have
grown some for over 30 years, but most of mine are unnamed "hand-me-downs".
Within the last few years my interest has gotten deeper, and I'm learning a
lot more about the plants, their relationships, history, and naming.

Looks like the ones you're looking for are going to be difficult.  I just
did a little searching and found none except in pedigrees of others.  I'd
love to find out if you find any of them.

Good Luck,

Dave
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