..there was this funky tree in the back yard...last week I was walking down my street and some random house had it in the front yard.. A Walking Stick? I guess that explains how it got from the backyard of the house he's buying to the neighbor's front yard!

Thank you so much Iris_gal. I had hoped to check on the coloring again yesterday, but the bloom had already faded. There are some new buds about to open so I will compare those to 'California Gold'. Mine has just a tiny bit more white around the falls (new to learning the parts of irises), but it sure looks closer to 'California Gold' than any other irises I've also searched. Would be funny if it's 'California Gold' being that I got this iris from Maryland, LOL!

It's got a hole in the bottom, I just didn't have it on a saucer in this pic. And I made the mix. It's just potting soil, perlite, and crushed granite.

I want to know too! Fwiw, before Google, a botanist at Pearl City at extension service told me it was gumi or goumi, a Japanese ornamental. Now that I search on that name, gumi looks nothing like this plant. Good thing I cut it down and yanked the root from my garden back then!