It looks like a Spuria. But Spurias do not have bulbs.

Dutch iris grow from bulbs with narrower and arching foliage.

Is the hot pink a Salvia?

Yes, the hot pink is an autumn sage....salvia greggi, I think.

The iris came with my house, so I have very little knowledge about it. I'm pretty sure this iris is a bulb. I've split the original clump a couple of times. I'll look into the spuria.

Lisa

i. orientalis, a species spuria, I think. Does it have a hairy rhizome or when you break it apart, it is pink inside?

Walter Moores

I have grown Iris for about 2 years now and have two friends, one is an Iris hybridizer and the other friend introduced me to him. The Hybridizer is 89 years old and is looking to get rid of his irises in the next few years. Yet in all of the Irises he has I have never seen a pure white Iris. This is a first for me.

I agree with Mr. Moores. I "lifted" a bit of this from a vacant house after watching it bloom for 2 summers. I love it. Hope it blooms for me.

I suspect that once established it will be one of those things that you can't kill.

I. orientalis is correct. It is pretty commonly found and can thrive in neglect. Here's a link with more info.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Species Iris database

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I appreciate all your help. Those pictures Mike posted do look the same to me.

KPRP, not only does it not die, it THRIVES with a regular care. This stuff has multiplied freely. When I inherited it, they were in very shady areas. I've moved some to full sun/well drained sections and they are going wild.

After the blooms go I'm going to pack some off to a few other gardens I think.

When I move them, I'll take a look at the rhizome. It's highly possible it's a rhizome and I've never paid any attention to it.

Lisa

Last week, a property seller told me to "take all I wanted" from a long-vacant & untended piece of property.

They were growing in solid clay, about as easy to dig as asphalt, on a hillside where clay had washed down over so many years that the rhizomes were about 4" underground.

They were blooming.

Silvia: You had the same white iris....i. orientalis aka spuria?

That does speak to its hardiness!

Lisa

My uncle gave me a bunch of those in the pictures. He had so many of them that he tried to get rid of them by diging up the rhizomes and throwing the clumps into the woods thinking they would dry out. They rooted and grew and spread in the woods. He gave a lot to me last year... they sat in buckets and it looked like they were comepletely dead. I planted them a month or so after I got them and they lived and are huge this year. I am thinking about planting some around the 5 acre pond behind my house to grow around the water and hold some of the dirt in. They seem impossible to kill.

Just a bit of nomenclature: If the ID is correct, Spuria irises is the name of the group these belong to; there are other species and hybrids that are also Spuria irises. The commonly used name for this iris is Iris ochroleuca, but that is incorrect (at least, so my iris book tells me); the correct name is I. orientalis. I have these too, like them, and along with others on this thread are ready to swear they can't be killed. (Although constant wet in the summer would do it if anything would, I bet.)

Melissa

I just wanted to add a thank-you to Mike for posting the link to the species iris database. I'm getting interested in species irises myself and the pictures were very helpful. The whole idea of the iris database is cause for gratitude.

Melissa

Update: I dug a ton of these up this last weekend....the roots are a rhizome not a bulb!!!

Thanks again for your help.

Lisa

See this post above:

garden_of_mu(Z7/8 PNW)

I. orientalis is correct. It is pretty commonly found and can thrive in neglect. Here's a link with more info.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Species Iris database