Though preservation is our mission, bulbs drop out of our catalog every year.
Sometimes it’s because the harvest was too small. Sometimes it’s because they’re widely available elsewhere and don’t need our help. And sometimes it’s because we’ve lost our only known source due to severe weather (cold, drought, etc.), health problems (a debilitating stroke), or economic woes (small farmers are always at risk).
The good news is that, in time, we’re often able to return these bulbs to our catalog. So here’s a list of many we’ve offered in the past. For an alert the moment they’re available again, subscribe to our free email newsletter. Or to find a similar bulb, try our easy Advanced Bulb Search.
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This famous iris is not only magnificently handsome, it’s also “a survivor par excellence,” to quote expert Cameron Hall, growing vigorously in old gardens and forgotten places from coast to coast. Introduced by Vilmorin of France, it was one of the first tetraploids, setting a ground-breaking new standard – taller, larger-flowered, and richly colored – for 20th-century iris. 38-40”, zones 3a-8a(10aWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Last offered in 2018. Born in Mapleton, Iowa, this handsome farmboy went on to win the iris world’s highest honors, including the Dykes Medal in 1950. A silvery blue-purple that’s usually described as “cornflower,” it looks especially good with silver-leaved perennials such as lavender and Russian sage. And it’s deliciously lemon scented! 38-40”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Considered the first American iris introduction, ‘Fairy’ is “by far the best” of the “tall, creamy, whites” (to quote AIS founder John Wister). “Delicately penciled and margined” with light blue/lilac and to add to its charms, ‘Fairy’ has a delicious, sweet scent, such that Ella Porter McKinney, author of Iris in the Little Garden, considered it “the one iris whose fragrance was liked by all.” It’s a fine legacy left us by the Illinois plant-lover and Civil War veteran Amasa Kennicott. Plicata, 40”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), grown at our Ann Arbor farm and now finally increased enough to offer you!
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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With its lower petals held out at a jaunty angle, this profusely blooming little iris really does have the look of a host of butterflies. It was bred by the remarkable Grace Sturtevant of Massachusetts, a trained artist and “the world’s first woman plant hybridizer” (Mahan, 2007). Unfortunately, due to our very limited growing space we may not offer this little charmer again, so get it while you can! 24-26”, zones 3a-8a(10aWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2016. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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By Ferdinand Cayeux, perhaps the greatest iris breeder of all time, this big, stately iris features pale, rippled standards of lilac and fawn over falls of deep, velvety maroon shading to violet. Our stock of this rarity is very limited, and it will be years before we can offer it again, so get it while you can! 38-46”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2015. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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At Wave Hill, the legendary Marco Polo Stufano championed hundreds of little-known but fabulous flowers, including this classic iris. Just two feet tall, it melds happily into perennial gardens where its luminous, pale gold standards over a lacework of raisin-purple give it a regal presence. Tough and floriferous, 20-24", zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2021. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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There’s a lot more to this iris than a great name. It’s Canadian-bred, so you know it’s tough, its stems are tall and sturdy, and its profuse, handsome flowers seem to reflect the summer sky. Winner of the Dykes Medal, it was “unquestionably the finest of all blue iris” for decades (Wayside, 1954). With a fragrance that’s been compared to magnolias, 36-40”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2016. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This pixie queen is an “exquisite shade of lilac-pink, almost old rose” (The Garden Magazine, 1917), but what really sets it apart is the rich tapestry of deeper rose that ornaments its falls. Plant it where you can enjoy that exquisite detailing up close, or pick lots of bouquets! Fragrant, 24-26”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of iris. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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With velvety, wine-red falls and glowing standards of raspberry to bronze, this tall, striking, Jazz Age iris is one of the most colorful we grow. It’s exceptionally vigorous, too, thriving on neglect in old gardens everywhere and blooming even in part shade. By the good Dr. Wylie Ayres of Cincinnati, 32-36”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Last offered spring 2021. Subtle and small-flowered, this rarely offered beauty will never be mistaken for a modern iris. It’s an intriguing blend of soft lavender shaded at the edges by even softer brown – yes, brown! – and brightened by a glow in the center that spills out on its golden beards. Due to limited space in our micro-farm, we’re offering it one time only, so get it while you can! Aka ‘Dove’, ‘Agnes Sorrel’, ‘Pluton’, ‘Rosamond’, and ‘Candicans’. 22-26”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The most sought-after iris of the 19th century, ‘Mme. Chereau’ is tall, stately, and oh so lovely. Its elegantly long white petals are neatly stitched or feathered with purple along the edges in a pattern known as plicata. A truly landmark iris, it was bred by pioneering nurseryman Jean-Nicolas Lémon whose 150 dazzling introductions transformed iris from a wildflower into a garden superstar. Grape-scented, 36”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Introduced by Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie, the famous French seed company, this sumptuous iris features violet standards over deep, velvety, claret purple falls with vivid white reticulations and an orange beard. But popularity and survival depend on more than good looks, and ‘Monsignor’ – like many cherished pass-along plants – grows with great vigor and blooms abundantly. Fragrant, 28-32”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The perfect size for bouquets, and luminous in the garden, this elegant small iris is named for Maud du Puy, the Philadelphia-born wife of one of Darwin’s sons. Although often confused with its sister ‘Mrs. Horace Darwin’ (which we offered last year), it’s laced with gold and purple (not just purple) and blooms later (extending the sisterly season). 24”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Although named in 1813, this wild hybrid of I. pallida and I. variegata was probably grown in gardens long before that. Today several similar clones are grouped under this name, all short and small-flowered with pale lavender standards over jaunty little falls that are richly veined with purple – and as the Biltmore Nursery catalog noted in 1912, “most desirable.” Due to limited space in our micro-farm, we’re offering this wild jewel one time only, so get it while you can! 20-14”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of iris. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The deep, warm, radiant yellow of this Dykes Medal winner continues to astonish gardeners nearly 70 years after it was first introduced by Jacob Sass of Nebraska. Its beards are orange, its tall stalks never topple, and it multiplies vigorously. In short, as its Greek name declares, it’s “all good.” 36-38”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2013. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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“Well named,” wrote Nebraska nurseryman Charles Harrison in 1916, “tall and queenly, with a profusion of bloom of radiant and glistening purple.” Nearly a century later, iris expert Mike Unser agrees, saying ‘Perfection’ is “true to its name . . . with exceptional color, flawless form, vigorous growth” and even “beautiful foliage.” Flaring falls and splashes of darker purple on its standards add to its appeal. 28-34”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of iris. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This fragrant little iris is a fascinating mix of jewel-like colors that photos can only hint at. “Coppery rose” over “velvety claret” is how the legendary Bertrand Farr described it in 1920, while other have called it “rosy mauve with metallic sheen” over “red-violet, edged gold-brown.” Early and free flowering, it’s an iris we look forward to every year. (Please note: Recent research by Anner Whitehead has convinced us that ‘Plumeri’ dates to 1888, not 1830.) 28-32”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This radiant little iris won my heart long before I learned its name. A new neighbor rescued a single rhizome from the shade of overgrown shrubs, and before long it had multiplied into a big clump of one of the most beautiful iris I’d ever seen. Blooming abundantly, it has luminous, pale yellow standards over bright, rosy purple falls for an effect that’s absolutely scintillating. 20-24”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2017. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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One of the first “pink” irises, this Victorian favorite isn’t really pink but a soft, luminous, rosy lavender that’s distinctly different from the many lavender-blues of iris season. It’s fragrant, free-flowering, and still – as Ella McKinney summed it up in her 1927 Iris in the Little Garden – “old, early, and good.” 28-32”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Praised as “a delightful fantasy of colors” by the 1946 Schreiner’s catalog, this Dykes Medal winner is an ever-changing mix of iridescent bronze and old rose shading into deep russet and maroon. It’s remarkably tough and vigorous, too. As expert Winifred Ross wrote, “Once you have ‘Rosy Wings’, you always have it.” Lightly fragrant, 36-40”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2014. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Grown by author Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst – one of the 20th century’s most iconic gardens – this pastel beauty was bred by T. Lloyd Pillow, superintendent of Pittsburgh’s Street and Sewer Department. On tall, strong stems, its primrose-and-cream standards over old-rose, almost-pink falls make it an iris that our garden visitors always notice and admire. 38-42”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of iris. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The finest “pink” iris of the early 20th century, this lilac-rose beauty first sold for an unheard-of $75 each. For decades it was widely-praised for its “perfect form” (Wayman), “robust constitution” (Puget Sound), “freedom of flowering” (Hellings), and “appealing creamy pink tone” (Mead) which “blends well with almost any color” (Peckham) – and that’s all still true today. 30-34”, zones 3a-8a(10aWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2016. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Simple but stunning, ‘Wabash’ won the iris world’s top prize, the Dykes Medal, in 1940, and it’s still enormously popular today, often topping the annual polls of the Historic Iris Preservation Society. Its pure white standards glow above vibrant purple falls that are intensified by gold beards and a radiant edging of silver. 36”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from Ann Arbor.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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One of the oldest American iris, petite ‘Wyomissing’ debuted in the very first catalog of Bertrand Farr, the visionary Pennsylvania nurseryman who sparked America’s love affair with iris in the early 1900s. It’s a dreamy, uniquely-colored iris with warm white standards blushed lavender-pink and richly patterned falls of a deeper, rosier lavender that blurs and fades into mist at the edges. 22-24”, zones 3a-8a(10bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farm.
Last offered in 2023. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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