horticulturally challenged

It's too late at night to be wandering around saying...is it an iris? is it a gladiolus? I think it's an iris. A flag iris, maybe? It's certainly locally grown - or at least, it had a little label in Whole Foods claiming that it was. If it were earlier in the evening, one could go down to the wonderful garden of a small house on the corner of Graham St. and S. Fifth, where the owner has an extraordinary collection of irises, lilies, and for all I know gladioli: all of them arranged, staked, grouped, clumped, and above all, labelled. It's a real labor of love, and every year looks magnificent - both as a triumph of gardening, and also of careful organization. I have no idea - I realize - if one type of corm (I think they grow from corms? or bulbs?) is easier than another; if the NJ soil is especially propitious; if the hen who lives in the house opposite them and sometimes struts around likes to nibble on them. But this pale orange and rust flower, and its cream and purple, and pure white counterparts are certainly testimony to the fact that we have suddenly been precipitate into summer.