Jim, Thanks. This was an excellent primer! And thanks also for the links; those will be helpful too. When you said the "Dutch" type of Iris was a more complex variety, what did you mean. I'm interested because although I now know that these are not all that easy to keep growing in a lot of places, the ordinary "store-bought" mixture I planted at my parents' house in Central Texas almost 20 years ago has naturalized and continued to spread and thrive in huge clumps that bloom every spring for my mother. So I'm interested in their probable origins (species and locations). --Lee Poulsen Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10 On Mar 10, 2004, at 12:20 PM, James Waddick wrote: > Dear Lee et al; > I fear that Bob's presentation was needlessly confusing without > presenting a base line. Let me try to simplify things and give you a > start on the genus.