All the colors must have been there to start with but for some reason the purple were dominant at your parents. When you moved them and gave all reasonable space the other colors showed up. That is my best guess. I have been moving iris that had been growing wild for 25+ years. Only one color had bloomed in at least 20 years. I set these out in rows one plant every two feet. There are at least 8 different color of iris so far. 60% are one color, 20% another, 10% another. The other 10% are the other five colors. I am not through yet. It has been two years for some of them and all of these have gotten to bloom size. At least half of what I have moved have not bloomed yet. I tried to get iris from all locations the first year so I may have all the colors. It has beem an interesting project. The 20% color is Wabash. The 10% color is Quaker Lady. The other are awaiting ID. Lee Mincy

Thanks that makes more sense than what I was coming up with.
Kelly

Bee pods could have also been the culprit. If over the many years they were allowed to set seed and drop them then you would have young plants mixed in without knowing it.

Just a thought.

That is a possibility. A seedling would have had a hard time ever getting to bloom size in a matted bed of iris. I have found that iris growing in an untended bed will just put increase on one end and will keep getting longer and longer but never bloom. I dug some that were about 10 inches long and very thin. You could see a slight indentation where each year's increase had been added on. On the end away from the fan the rhizome got harder and more dried out, almost becoming woody in texture. I cut many of these up where I though each new increase had begun and almost all of these made an iris fan that put on increase and a lot bloomed the second year. It may be just the older iris but I have had a lot of success cutting up spent rhizomes and starting new plants. That is one reason I have so many iris that were from my grandmother's iris bed that was first abandoned in 1966. I may have about 500 of one NOID that I believe that one day I will ID. This number will at least triple each year I tend them. Lee Mincy

My parents purchased some named irises many years ago. My mother tells me they are mauve, but should have been mixed colours. The problem is that they panted them in a shady spot in very malnourished soil. Only a mauve one has ever bloomed. I took a few piece3s last year and hope to see them bloom this year. I even found a label "Choir Girl" on one of them. I am sure there WILL be a mixture of colours.

If they have managed to survive given good soil and sunlight the iris will remember what color they really are and will come back with all their beauty.