That's a really nice collection of smoky plum colored iris.
Laetitia

hi iris gal, it's fman. thanks for posting those pictures. it is really helpful. i like black as night and annie's dress. are they hard to find? where is a good on-line place to purchase irises? when do these bloom? do you know a pure white iris that would bloom at the same time? any tips on planting and maintaining irises? sorry for all the questions but i never planted irises before. my garden is mostly a shade garden and this area of my garden is the only part that is in full sun. most of my plant knowledge is in shade plants. i tend to collect unusual shade perennials ( various arisaemas, hostas, woodland ephemerals, podophyllums, epimediums, toadlillies, ferns etc. ) mixed with interesting shade shrubs ( rhodies, azaleas, mountain laurel, japanese maples, redbud etc. ). planting sun perennials is all new to me. thanks for any information. fman

Thanks Laetitia!

FMAN ~~ good questions. I especially love shade gardens.

Snowpeak Iris, Aitkens Salmon Creek, Argyle Acres, Mid-America Iris, Schreiners, all are upstanding places. Blue J Iris has excellent prices and a huge selection -- I ordered from them for the first time. Hope to be happy with accuracy. Prices do vary and don't necessarily denote better quality. The AIS link provided has a commercial link lower on the left side of the page with links to many growers' sites.

The earliest beardeds are the dwarfs, ie. Annie's Dress (standard dwarf bearded). They do have some shades of color I haven't seen in the taller categories. I know you specified late bloom but she looks like such a great color for smoke bush that I couldn't resist. They will not bloom at the same time as tall beardeds. (exception may be an early reblooming TB)

I track bloom time with my own iris (mainly pastels) and I do not grow pure white anymore. In fact I only have Vibrations in the above group. Most iris sites list Early, Medium or Late for bloom time. I suspect tall beardeds (TBs) will bloom after your spring bulbs. In zone 7 that might be late May > early June??? Bloom time can also be affected one week by different locations in the same garden.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. Glad you checked back. And a warning about pictures . . . . . . . . . . I tried to pick ones that looked close, but always read the color description and trust it first. Weather also has an influence on the richness of color.

And since you're only interested in one or two, you might try posting a request on the Exchange part of this forum. Someone must have extra Skating Party rhizomes for postage. Or Immortality. They're both widely grown. Another excellent pure white is Mesmerizer. It's called a space age because of extra flounce below the beard. Not everyone's cup of tea.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.irises.org/