FAQ 1

Answer: 
People frequently request assistance identifying unknown irises, but it’s important to realize just how extremely difficult this is. With almost 54,000 different iris cultivars currently registered with the AIS, and more being added every day, there are likely to be dozens or perhaps hundreds of named irises which look almost identical. There’s also the strong possibility that an unknown iris was never registered with the AIS, especially if it was the result of random bee pollination sometime in the distant past. I’m afraid the best one can hope for is to develop a list of names of potential matches and then see how many of those can be acquired to grow side by side with the unknown iris(es) to make detailed comparisons over the next couple of years as they grow and mature into clumps under exactly the same growing conditions in the same garden.

The following two articles on the HIPS website explain the long and challenging road to identifying unknown irises:

I’m Sorry, I Didn’t Get Your Name …

Don’t Skimp on Film!!