Hello to all, I could use some of your expertise, please. I found this Iris in Bakersfield, California twenty-five years ago at a house built in the forties. I have no idea how old the plant is, it was just in a garden with no names that had changed hands many times, no info on the plants. When I lived there and it was very happy I measured the bloom at eight inches tall. The rhizomes were huge. Potato size. Now that I have it in Oregon, it is not as happy, but still marches on with six inch blooms.
I call it Bakersfield Purple, but I wonder if anyone has an idea of it's proper name.
Thank you in advance.

Hi Erin,
This is likely an un-named seedling. It resembles the basic iris germanica species---lots of pictures in the link below.
https://wiki.irises.org/Spec/S...

The Historical Iris Society has a searchable database of named cultivars, but as you will see, there are quite a few irises very similar to yours (with purple standards and falls):
https://historiciris.org/galle...

You will probably just have to stick with "Bakersfield Purple Noid." But that is OK! You can still enjoy its blooms every year.

Is your color accurate or pulling more towards the red spectrum? William A. Setchell has huge flowers for the age (1939).. but it is more purple. It's as big, or bigger than many of the modern varieties. Compare yours to the photos... The haft markings almost form a "V" around the blue tipped beard. The edges of the falls have some fade to them, and the hafts have a little more red in them. I can't tell a lot from your picture, but I see enough similarities to suggest this one. It is still a popular variety, and can be found on old homesteads and gardens.

You beat me to it, Sherry. I was thinking of William Setchell, too. I remember it being the biggest flower among all my mother's flowers, by far. It was a favorite. I remember it smelling like concord grapes.

Daisy, it was the Iris my mother grew too.

Some people's William Setchells don't look like I remember it. But, Sherry, yours does. You must be good at deadheading to prevent reversion by seedlings. I think a lot of the pictures of it in the database are actually reverted seedlings, sorry to say.

I have to say, I've never had an errant seedling.. I do deadhead as I get around to it, but I've got over 1,200 of them.. I have noticed that there is a relatively low fertility rate.. very few bee pods.. so I always wonder when someone says, "it must be a seedling", if their fertility rate is much higher than mine..
Regarding the pictures of WAS in the database, I think there are only a couple that are incorrect. I think that's more a case of getting a misidentified Iris or mixing up tags on those.. The wild color variation is more a result of different cameras or time of day. Older cell phones were really off on their colors. They made beautiful pictures, but had highly inaccurate color representation. It's pretty common to see purples being pushed toward the red spectrum. Fortunately most of them have gotten much better.

Oh, thank you so much for your replies! The system again didn't tell me. My computer must have other ideas.
I hesitated to post it because yes, it does look a lot like the old Grandma's Purple Flag, which I have many of as well. But it is huge, and that isn't.
I am sure you are right, Sherry, I just went out and got one and held it up to your photos, a perfect match to William A. Setchell. It did come from an old house in Bakersfield, so all the more likely. And as Laurie said, it doesn't HAVE to have a name, it is wonderful to look at in any case. And yes, it smells so much it is hard to have them in the house.
Thank you all for your help, I have name tags to make now!

William A. Setchell and Wabash were my favorites in my mother's 1950's garden. Her garden contained many Dykes winning irises, so these had many competitors for my love, but nevertheless, these are the two that beat out the competition in my view. I fondly recall my child's fingers gently stroking the purple velvet falls of Wabash, and my nose and eyes enjoying the heady scent of grapes wafting from William's enormous blooms.