FAQ 2
Frequently Asked Questions About Irises
Question: I don’t know the name of my iris. How can I identify an unknown iris?
Answer: Each morning as I check my email to see if anyone else has provided potential identities for my unknown irises, I am reminded of how much I enjoy these particular plants and the special place they hold in my heart. A dearly departed irisarian used to urge me to eliminate all the unknown irises from my iris beds. I could understand his reasoning, as it came from the perspective of a commercial iris background. Unknown irises have little to no value for a commercial seller. They aren’t marketable as anything but inexpensive landscape plants, yet they take up just as much space, fertilizer, water, and labor in the garden as the more profitable named cultivars.
I, however, have a very different perspective on my unknown irises, and I would never deliberately rid my garden of a single one. Whereas named varieties can be easily replaced if they should meet an untimely end in one’s garden, a lost unknown is lost forever. And because most of my unknowns are historic, I embrace the alluring possibility that my beds may cradle rare treasures from the past that exist only here – treasures that someone somewhere is eagerly seeking and that is my responsibility to keep safe until discovered and given their proper recognition and respect.
How likely is it that my unknowns are, indeed, precious to anyone but me? Probably not terribly. But it’s the possibility and the mystery of these plants that make them so irresistible. Do I really want to know their true identities? Yes and no. It’s a bit like finding an old piece from your great-grandparents’ house in your attic. As long as you don’t take it to an antiques expert for appraisal, you can hold dear its priceless potential.
So, my tough old unknowns who grow circles around their more modern and thoroughly known counterparts will always hold their places in both my heart and my garden. And if someone from the “Antique Iris Road Show” should appear on my doorstep with $10,000 in hand for a start of unknown #56, I won’t be complaining.