Dennis, If you have photos of the old iris, there is a website, American Iris Society, that has links. The Historical Iris Society has a long list of "old" and not so old irises with photos of each. Perhaps you can find a match there, or get in touch with some of the Iris experts, who might be able to identify the iris for you. Patty In cold (34 degrees) but sunny Southeast Texas -----Original Message----- >From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com> >Sent: Feb 9, 2010 9:35 AM >To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> >Subject: Re: [pbs] old homestead bulbs > >Those ditch lilies are very common in the countryside here in SW Ohio. I >even have some on my property... a garden remnant of the previous owners. > >But my favorite old homestead flower is a bearded iris I've nicknamed 'Wild >Lakota'. The roadside places in which I've found it are nowhere near any >existing home. So I can't imagine how many decades they've been able to >persist, untended. And I've found it growing in a few rural locations >between Cincinnati & Dayton, so I assume it was a pass-along plant a very >long time ago. I collected a few pieces years ago and now have a big patch >of it in my front garden. For years it had never set seed, but then last >year there were a couple bee pods. > >I've seen other, more modern irises blooming at abandoned home sites. And >once I visited an abandoned trailer park... all the trailers were gone but >the remnants of their gardens were still there... irises... hibiscuses... >monardas... lobelias... sempervivums... it was pretty cool. > > > >On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 10:05 AM, Boyce Tankersley < >btankers@chicagobotanic.org> wrote: > >> In the Chicago area the older homesites often have patches of Scilla >> sibirica, Lycoris squamigera, the common orange Daylily and sometimes a >> peony or two. My favorite however is a 'grove' of tiger lilies, probably >> 250 - 300 plants - when in full bloom it is a show stopper. >> >> >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ ________________________________________ PeoplePC Online A better way to Internet http://www.peoplepc.com/