Historic Iris Marketplace Directory Listing

Welcome, iris retailers! We are excited and pleased to have you as an important component of our mission and vision to preserve historic irises and encourage the people who grow them.

“Do you know where I can get…?” Not a week goes by without someone asking us where they can find an iris they desperately want. Our members form a targeted customer base: gardeners who eagerly seek historic irises for their collections.

How to be listed in the Historic Iris Marketplace

The Historic Iris Preservation Society (HIPS) is a nonprofit institution incorporated in the State of Oregon. By the terms of the Charter, the Corporation has no stockholders. Our goals are to educate the public about historic irises and to bring historic irises at risk of extinction together with members of the public who want to grow and propagate them. Retailers who offer several historic iris cultivars may be listed on website by following the steps below.

The marketplace listings are for iris retailers who are willing to share basic historic iris inventory data with HIPS. The marketplace listings are then two-tiered:

Tier 1: Preferred Retailers are participating HIPS members and voluntarily submit to HIPS inventory data on the availability of its historic irises.

Tier 2: General Retailers are NOT participating HIPS members and voluntarily submit to HIPS inventory data on the availability of its historic irises.

If you are not a HIPS member and wish to become one of our Preferred Retailers, you can find membership information by clicking here.

Marketplace Directory & Listing Requirements

Is my website or e-commerce webpage considered retail? Your website is retail if you are advertising and selling items or services on it. To have your retail historic iris related link added to the HIPS website, please read and follow the simple instructions noted below.

  • Retail links are received, reviewed, accepted, and inserted into the HIPS website with the following method and requirements:
    1. Request that you be
    2. Tell us your active Internet website or, if you do not use the Internet, tell us how customers can order irises from
    3. Email your request to the Chair of the HIPS Retail Iris Source Committee at <[email protected]>. Provide your full business name, your website Internet URL address, and a brief one-sentence description of the historic iris related service If you are a current HIPS member, please provide the name under which your membership is recorded, for verification purposes.
  • The Retail Directory is reviewed from time to time; listings with inactive or dead- end links are Retailers whose HIPS membership has lapsed will be moved to the “General Retailer” section in our Directory.
  • Should your retail business information change, you may re-submit your new information to <[email protected]>.
  • The listing for a retail iris related link will appear on the following HIPS website page: Historic Iris Marketplace

Inventory Data Submission

 As part of our mission, we strive to maintain records of historic and rare irises. The term historic is defined by HIPS as “any iris that was hybridized and/or introduced 30+ years ago.” What makes an iris rare and/or endangered is a factor of how many individuals are known to grow it and how many retail sources offer it for sale. Irises that have a very low number of growers and retailers are placed in the Guardian Garden program. Once an iris is more widely established, it remains in the Guardian Garden program but is placed on a watch list.

To that end, HIPS requests its members and retail sources to furnish data at least annually. At a minimum, we ask that you provide us with the following:

  • Name of the iris cultivar
  • Year registered/introduced
  • Name of iris hybridizer
  • Status of the iris:
    • Currently for sale,
    • For future sale within 1-3 years,
    • Growing for personal pleasure (never for sale)

Data should be submitted to the Chair of the HIPS Retail Iris Source Committee no later than November 30 of each year. The data will then be used for HIPS annual reporting and to assist members and retail shoppers in search of a particular iris cultivar.