Where did you get these? I ask because they look like the Japanese Iris I bought six years ago at HD when I spotted a display of about a dozen of them. They were opening and gorgeous--- dark like these, purples, whites and shades of pale blue. I don't recall that they were named, though.

Molie

Marty - I think Molie is on target (naturally) ...are they Iris kaempferi ensata? I wish they had come from my gardens :)
Jane

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Images

Molie -- I'm pretty sure I got them from a plant swapper, but not sure how long ago though the clumps are not large, so must have been fairly recent. I do have notes that I got "Iris laevigata" from Deb one year, and I know Hedy has brought Japanese water iris on occasion though I don't have any notes that I have any of those. Whoever it was from probably told me what the cultivar was at the time, but I can't find that info now! The one with the larger blossom is definitely a different variety, a richer purple. They could definitely be forms of Iris kaempferi ensata.

While they do look more like Japanese iris/Iris ensata to me as well, I'm a bit surprised they're blooming now in CT. Mine normally bloom a bit later and altho' I've not checked them for buds so far this season, they weren't blooming when I went walkabout a couple of days ago. My own plants produce quite a soothing light-to-medium blue flower that I really enjoy seeing in bloom around mid-summer. The color of the ones pictured is really stunning!

Hmmm... here are closer shots, taken this evening.

Do those help in terms of IDs? They are very similar in the photos, but in real life, the first one is a deeper purple than the second one, though definitely in the same family of purples.

(I'm going to have to move that red hummingbird feeder if these guys are going to put on a show like this every year!)

Nobody out there recognizes these??? I know I didn't buy them! Must be from someone's garden (Hedy?)

Still going strong... LOVE these!

/ Marty

Yes I have the same ones in my garden along the lake. I've taken many iris and daylilies to the swap that no longer have names so it must be mine. I did take a picture and have to download it, etc.
Hedy

Ah, thought they might be yours, Hedy! I have several specific iris in my records noted as coming from you but none of those matched these when I looked them up (I'm getting serious about labeling my plants in the garden!), so these must be some of your nameless beauties! They really are lovely and still going strong... ! Maybe I'll just put "Hedy's Beauties" on the tag and leave it at that ;)

Since you seem so "distressed" about your iris,
perhaps you could just pot them up and dump them off
with me at the next swap. . .

They're stunning! And I agree with others that they
are most probably Iris ensata. . .do you have them in
a particularly moist spot? I've always been reluctant to
try them since my garden is particularly dry and I'm not
good at remembering to water specific plants !

Carl

Nice try, Carl :) I'm only distressed that my grand master plan of actually NAMING my plants at long last (I even bought 100 of those little metal plaque stakes) has hit a snag with the iris ... For now they shall remain "iris unknownus"! Try as I may, I can't seem to keep name tags with plants. Or I keep them, carefully, only to discover by the next spring that whatever was WRITTEN on the tag is long since gone. I have a lovely plain white tag adorning one particularly stunning daylily at the moment. Sadly, I think it was a hybrid where I was experimenting with crossing two varieties and I KNOW the tag said which two were being crossed ... but alas, the new daylily is condemned to undetermined parentage...

They are not in an especially moist area, though there is a soaker hose that isn't working particularly well so WHEN I run it (which I have not had to do a lot this year)... it leaks madly and they get a real soaking. Otherwise, it's just a regular bed, with morning shade, built up with lots of compost. The iris seem happy, though! :)

(By the way, your Vernonia baldwinii is coming up nicely, though something is enjoying the end tip leaves of that and ALL my buddleias and veronicas, and even some of the echinaceas and phlox. Very annoying... this is a field day of a summer for bugs of all kinds. I keep seeing what I think are tent caterpillar webs on plants and on closer inspection, they turn out to be spider web sacs that have dispensed untold hundreds of wee (adorable) spiders... I don't recall seeing those festooning everything from daylilies to the Blanche Sandman honeysuckle to the roses in previous years! Much better than actual tent caterpillars, for sure... but disconcerting! Anyway, I am looking forward to the ironweed blooms!)

This is a picture of the iris from my garden.

Hedy

Hedy, those are definitely one of the two -- the second of my pics! The others I have are very similar except the flowers are much wider, and the petals (also wider) overlap one another -- no space between them. I also noticed that for those, the foliage is almost "pleated" -- quite intriguing, and I don't know if they were always that way or if it's the heat and rain or what... but definitely accordion pleats running vertically (i.e., along the leaf, bottom to top) on the first (wider petaled) variety. If that tells anyone anything??

Here's an update on the Verbena bonariensis 'Lollipop' I planted last year.

I didn't save the seeds --- turns out I didn't have to because this Verbena definitely did reseed, as DiD wondered last July. It reverted back to the taller standard variety and has also spread everywhere. That turns out not to be a bad thing because I actually prefer this to the shorter variety.

Serendipity in the garden :)

It's funny, I have the ones with the larger flowers next to these (no picture) and I was wondering why some had wider flowers than others. Never looked at them close enough to see that they were 2 different varieties.