Gardening close to a busy sidewalk does have it's unique problems. Someone walking by decided to walk off with a lot of my plant markers. Here are a few tall bearded iris I am at a lose to ID. Any idea? Most are fairly new. I will most likely add more as more open but these are open now in zone 6a.

First one looks a lot like Decadence.

Second one looks alot like Rainy River, but if it is it should have PBF. There are so many like this though, it's going to be hard unless you recognize the name after you hear it. Guess that's way a good bed map is important.

I think many of us have been there, done that, and yes, it's a pain. If you kept your old orders around (or keep a plant purchasing log, which I've learned to do), that could be helpful.

Otherwise...

Make garden maps (not fool proof but so long as you don't plant similar irises together it can be somewhat helpful)

BURY a (waterproof label) marker with the plant

FYI, depending on exactly what kind of markers you had, the culprits could have been critters, not humans. I swear that the critters here keep going after my 4" plastic labels (which I use as temporary markers). Or it could be that the critters were digging around the plant (squirrels burying or searching for buried nuts), the labels got dislodged, and then got swept/blown away.

Metal labels... especially heavy ones, or ones that it takes some effort to get out of the ground.... I'd agree that those were probably ripped off by humans, for whatever reason.

Susan, the personal plants database available to you in your profile at this forum is great for keeping track of what you have, and in the notes you can add approximately where and when you planted it, and from what vendor or friend you got it. I find it immensely helpful, along with my markers to refresh my memory and keep track of things if labels get lost.

I agree with Tom that the first one looks like Decadence. No clue on the others. The personal plant list is very useful for such situations, as it will have a photo of each plant beside the name. It also allows you to make notes of when/where you obtained a plant. This is helpful if you wait 2 years for your new iris to bloom and it ends up not being the plant you ordered. I was here for quite a few years before I started using the database. I had ordered a bunch of iris from a particular grower and marked them with wooden markers written on with sharpie, not realizing that sharpie can't hold up to northeast winter. Before I became an iris collector, the only plants I'd ever marked were vegetables, so the markers aren't in the garden that long. By the time the iris finally bloomed, the markers were blank, I couldn't find my order receipt and the guys running the farm had retired. They were all iris from the 80s - 90s - many of them purple, blue and pink selfs which I ended up giving to a friend as NOIDS because she didn't care about the names and just wanted pretty iris.

Could that be Fruit Slices?

Thanks everyone. Decadence is one I know I have. Fruit Slices doesn't sound familiar. I do use the metal markers but know I need to start making maps or doing something else to keep them straight.

Here it is - uploaded by you, in fact!

Lovely Senorita:

Good find, Daisy.

Good way to find them, from your uploaded photos!
Now go add that plant to your inventory list from the database.
I lost almost all my tags over the years and if it wasn't for my database list, no way would I ever remember any names. I even have a separate category for gopher losses, just in case a stray piece survives, I can then move it back to the iris category in my list.

I don't specifically have a category for gopher losses (though I'm suffering there with you, Sue), but I do have one for "used to have" plants. So I can also resurrect irises (onto the "have" plant list) if a piece somehow survives (as PEGGY SUE did from last year's gopher raid), or use that list if I decide I want to look for replacements.

The 4-5" plastic markers (for that matter, ANY plastic markers, in my experience) simply won't work as a long term solution. Either they UV degrade, and/or the critters move them... Copper tags and stakes also didn't work for me... Expensive engraved labels, while lovely, don't stay attached to the stakes and get lost.

The only thing that has worked for me has been Wren stainless steel markers, with the Brothers tape labels attached. Even those can get buried, though.... Earlier this year I really had to dig to find the marker I had placed next to one of my PCIs. Someone had stepped on it and driven it all the way down into the ground.