Nice. A free neomarica caerulea. Your iris will make new irises is you let the flowers touch the soil. They are called 'walking irises' or 'apostle plant' sometimes. The flowers get heavy and fall to the ground, then they send out roots. Once they are established, you can cut the rooted plant off of the parent and you have a perfect copy. Renee

Nice side shot. One taken looking downwards slightly showing a front view of beards, haft markings (or lack) and width of falls will be most helpful in identification. And a side shot of the entire stalk to show exact branching pattern is a sure way to confirm. I notice a rust layer in the beards in this side view. It may account for some pictures showing a darker beard color. My best guess from this picture is Spartan, Schreiner'73, AM'76.

Hi Scott, That's a lovely historic iris. My first iris is similar, my grandfather grew it here, and it also smells heavenly. It may not be possible for anyone to ID it for you, since there are so many of that particular color and shape. I have not been able to identify mine. Thanks for posting the photo, it looks like spring. Renee

Not disagreeing with you, but this small-stature tree is less apt to tumble in the wind than a giant maple or oak. I don't have the numeric answer as to which of the two root system anomalies the two of us cite here are the most prevalent. They're both terrible. Around these parts, private landscapers all too often seem utterly oblivious to the "new" tree care. You know-the stuff that has come out since 1980! Too-deep planting, not unraveling the junk tied around root balls, not finding the root flare, using the top of the ball as a depth guide, using soil amendments in the backfill, not even attempting to make corrections to containerized root systems....it is almost as if these folks are willfully ignorant. There's a lot of "we've always done it this way" going on. Then there's the profit motive as excuse folks. "We can't make a profit if we plant that way".....Well, my answer to that, always at the ready, is that tree planting is a long-term project. The life of the tree should, if at all successful, be measured in decades, if not longer. Hence, another couple minutes taken to plant it correctly vanishes into insignificance over this timespan. Yes, preaching to the choir here this morning! +oM