Border Bearded Iris TINK

Now here is an iris I am looking forward to seeing it bloom again in the coming few weeks or so. Purchased one Sunday in May while meandering  at the Masterton car boot sale I discovered for sale this "mystery iris" (the seller had no idea of its name). Of course I immediately purchased the rhizome with it's bloom stalk attached and rushed home to 'Solve the Mystery' of its name and take some photos of my 'find'. Let me tell you the taking the photos was the easy part. I was completely stumped with a name, so I enlisted the help of Keith Keppel who had this suggestion,  "An unusual combination.  Do some research on the border bearded 'Tink' (Durrance '91).  Your picture looks a bit too good for what I remember, and the falls a bit more apricot toned, but there are so few anywhere near.  When 'Tink' came out, it was compared with the old Kleinsorge TB, 'Surprise Party'."
Sure enough I found a listing in Waimate Iris Garden catalogue from the days when they sold Border Bearded Iris which to be honest was the last place I expected to see it catalogued as Waimate always had very conservative tastes in their offerings, but finding the listing confirmed it did come to New Zealand. After reading Perry Dyer's description (below) which mentioned the purple-based foliage did certainly clinched the ID. I am over the moon to have this brilliantly loud re-blooming addition now growing in my garden and man can it grow, its only been growing here for 16 or so weeks and its growth has been very impressive!!!!

Longs Gardens, Boulder, Colorado. 1991 Colorado Creations.
TINK (John Durrance) 26" EM. Sdlg. D86-2. 6 buds. Tinker Belle at her Sunday best. A lovely pastel bicolor with lavender standards, gold falls, and gold-orange beards. Little Suzie X Tinker Tam $20.00

Contemporary Views,1992, Perry Dyer– Border Bearded
One of the most fun irises in Texas was the new BB, TINK (Durrance 1991), colorful, with an innovative combination of colors. Standards are pink lemonade pink; falls are amber with yellow in the center (very much like a burnished ‘Tulare’ (Hamblen) in color and shape). Bright orange beards. Looked like 2 different flowers had been dissected and glued together – we’ve never seen a color combo like this before. But it works, and I’m hooked! Simple, thin stalks with 2 branches, double socketed. Beautiful purple-based foliage with the vigor and health of ‘Tulare’. Watch for this one!

Waimate Iris Garden 2000
TINK,  Durrance 1991
Pink lavender and golden tan bi-colour. Colourful. Re-blooms well. E-M ...................$4.00

AIS Checklist 1999
TINK  John Durrance, Reg 1991 Sdlg. D86-2. BB, 26" (65 cm), EM ; S. lavender; F. gold; beards gold orange. Little Susie X Tinker-Tam. Long 1991. HM 1993, AM 1997 .

It's important to remember with re-blooming irises that these irises are doing two seasons growth every year so after the first flush of blooms you need to feed them generously and then keep the water up to them through the summer season and all through to Autumn if you can. This is necessary to be sure of a good display the following spring.

As usual, clicking the above image will take you to the larger, higher resolution version.

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Photo credit and copyright Terry Johnson and Heritage Irises ©.