What were your favorite iris for sturdiness.

I'm tired of the floppy iris that flops over when it rains. They are beautiful and huge but if the stalk isn't strong enough to hold up the bloom than I'd rather not fuss with it. My favorite for strength and beauty this year was Goldkist. It held up and had a very long bloom time. What iris is your favorites for strength, beauty and bloom time? Lilylu

Wild Angel

Superstition is all around good.

Banana Frappe -- This TB iris, in full sun, put out the strongest, thickest blooms stalks I have ever seen. I don't know how it does in the rain since we haven't had any, but the huge golden yellow blossoms tolerated the 40 mph April wind gusts. I don't know how it does in more moderate climates. (Here it is 10:00 pm and the temp is down to 97*)

Plants descended from Superstion do well also. The soil can make a difference as well--too sandy & over they go. I also like 'Blue Swade Shoes for sturdiness. Wild Jasmine is shorter but has a strong stem.

I have a tall white and a tall light blue (no id) that stand very sturdily unless they have rotting rhizomes or are overcrowded. The tallness in itself isn't always the problem, although you might want to go for the medians which are shorter and don't topple easily.

Thanks! I'll put all of these on my want list...I'm open for more suggestions as I have a huge area to fill. LILYLU

Right--the smaller medians extend the garden earlier. Among the border iris which bloom with the talls, Dance gypsy blooms late.

The two TBs that held up the best for me with our recent crazy rains and thunderstorms (and occasional hail) were Polish Princess and Cajun Cooking (shorter than PP). And I'm not sure if it's an IB or a BB, but Goosebumps was just about indestructible. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it's a favorite now - very interesting sweet scent and hardy as heck.

Gypsy Woman made it thru rain, hail and high winds and bloomed from 5/13 to 6/4!

jump for joy tall and sturdy with multiple increases and blooms looked brand new every day for 2 weeks

edited to note that my soil is almost pure red river valley river sand

This message was edited Jun 19, 2009 1:34 PM

Gypsy Woman is such a delicate pastel beauty! (I would expect the name to be given to a much more gaudily colored iris.) What is the gentle pink bud about to open on the bottom?

Caitlin, I have no idea what the name of that pink iris is at the moment. But, it could be Grateful Citizen. Here's the photo of it when it opened.

Happy,
that is a really pretty pink one which I will add to my Want List,plus I like that name.

The two standouts for me this year were Earthborn (in the photo below) which is on the short side, early flowering and the flowers held up w/ the rain and Indian Ceramics (gotta get photo on the PC and sized) which spent all last year increasing in a container and bloomed like crazy-last one to bloom for me here and the stalks and flowers were sturdy against the rains.

Earthborn

dmac,
I love Earthborn, but it didn't bloom for me this year. I haven't had any trouble with it, but it seems to fail to bloom at the slightest provocation. Of course, it may be that I have it in too much shade. Is yours vigorous?

I haven't had a problem with eb so far. This is it's second season for me and I started with tiny rhizomes and they bloomed the first year- 07. I started with 3 and had increases so I had double the stalks this time w/ about 4-5 buds per stalk. Out of all the named iris I initially started with in 2007 it's the only one that had a great show both seasons...of course now that I've said that I bet they take next year off:lol:

I do have to move them to the front as they are a bit buried behind some taller iris. They are in a full sun situation at the corner of my building.

I think I need to move mine and several others in the area. I find Tiger Honey very sturdy, also Fiery Temper, Wintry Sky, Okapi Poppy, All Night Long, Candy Apple Classic, Naples, Satin Satan, Dusky Challenger, Blenheim Royal, and Breakers very sturdy. So is Chinese Treasure, Titan's Glory and Study in Black. I think Superstition is very sturdy for most people but I managed to kill mine by planting it in a sunken area and it rotted. I am going to try again, though --have ordered another. Oh and Blueberry Bliss is really sturdy. I put it in a sunken area and it flourished!

I find Adobe Rose to be a strong blooming TBI in all weather conditions.

Ditto for Taco Supreme -

The old historic TB Iris 'Glen Ellen' 1939 has sturdy thick stalks that hold up good in wind and rain. It is a very dependable iris for increases also.

I also find that 'Sky Hooks' holds up well and doesn't tend to flop under weight of bloom, wind or rain. It has to be one of my favorite iris blooms.

Love the shape of Glen Ellen.

In my 50 years of iris growing I'd have to pick Queen's Circle. So beautiful and vigorous.

Closeup lovely large blooms. Seven and eight buds per stalk. First year for me, planted last fall.

mittsy,
Oh me, that 'Queen's Circle' is a beauty.

I agree,that would look pretty against a iris with the opposite colors.I'm making lists and I just added that one.Thanks for sharing.

I've been wanting Queen's Circle--I hear it increases like crazy too:lol:

Wow, I just found a daylily with the name Queen's Circle also. Both are beautiful!

I have planted Ocean Pacific and another blue one in the same bed and hope they will all bloom at the same time next year.

Ocean Pacific appeared to stand up well under the thunderstorms of Kansas City during the convention.

I pried Diamond Bracelet out of the mud today and brought the bloom and bud into the house. The bottom three buds were rotten so I felt I should enjoy them today and photograph them before they're gone.

Here's the close up. I also have Got Milk but it didn't bloom this year.

Are you saying that Diamond Bracelet didn't cut it?

I think it would be okay, but we had a week and a half of daily rain and it just fell over because the ground is so saturated, and it was quite tall. I will give it another year to prove it can stand tall.

Sounds fair enough. I kept finding my tall bloom stalks lying flat on the ground. Then I looked at the bottom of the stem and found tooth marks. On the ground next to them, gopher holes. Sometimes the bloom stalks were half down the holes. I was furious. All those lovely iris -- they seem to go only for the newest additions to my garden, some of them very expensive. Grr. I think I have said that before.

I recently read about putting lavender oil on a cotton ball and putting it down the hole. It might be worth a try. I think the article was in an old Organic Gardener magazine. Our local Friends of the Library just had their annual sale and my sister brought me a boxful of older magazines. There's a lot of good information in them.

Apparently gophers are very sensitive to smell. I once read that the best way to trap gophers is to douse the traps with cheap perfume. Haven't tried it but I think I will.

Gophers in my area HATE the smell of Avon perfumes! I also bought some really awful stuff at the dollar store -- 32 oz for $1!-- and they haven't been seen since I doused the area. I put it on old rags and stuffed it in their holes. My cats go after the moles, but they aren't quick enough to get the gophers. The only downsize to this is the smell lingers for you, too, so don't put it near any flowers you want to be able to sniff! LOL

Guess I need to try some Avon or stuff from the dollar store. Maybe putting it on rags helped. I have had cats catch gophers, but I can't have cats any more because DH is highly allergic to them.