Only a non-iris lover would.....

I was chatting with my mother about how I was trying to decide in which order to plant my TB iris. I had them in groups by bloom times, I had their heights wrote down, their colors, and the rebloomers. I was trying to decide which ones I want in the groups of three I am planting them all in. So my mother says, just plant them and see what colors they come up, it'll be an adventure. Gasp.....just plant them willy nilly??? Lol, no way!!! I couldn't imagine :)


Danielle

I had to laugh at your mothers comment Danielle. I have around 220 TBs and I number and plant them as I buy them. You would be horrified. I do have them in their own area all in beds of 10, but the colors are a riot when out. Once I was going to put all my Blyths , Keppels, etc together but I keep buying and then have no room in each section so now , in they go in numbered order of purchase.. Jean.

Lol...okay maybe I am a bit OCD...I love to make lists for everything....

I like to know which cultivators are which though in the iris garden. So I will be putting ids next to them, and making a chart. That way I'm not asking for id's later. Plus, I went through all the time of picking out certain cultivators I want to mark them.

I wanted to put all the rebloomers together for mass color so when they rebloomed they wouldn't be one here and another there. Even if they dont all rebloom at exact the same time. It will be easier knowing which ones to give extra water and feed to so they can rebloom. Same with grouping them by blooming time (extra early, early, mid, and late) that way I have masses of color instead of sporadic.

Then there was the grouping of colors which would look best together in the groups that I already had....hmmm is this odd?? lol

I am hoping I can just get out there and plant without standing there staring at my garden trying to decide where to put things. I will be trying to plant when my little one is napping, and any other time I can sneak in tomorrow. It is hard to sit and plant when I have a 19 month old getting into everything outside. She will only sit and play with me in the dirt for so long.....


Danielle w/ minor OCD :)

Danielle, we are ALL a little OCD when it comes to our iris! You are good to put all your rebloomers together, because they do need the extra attention after the first bloom, but you probably won't get a mass of color, as rebloomers can bloom again in only a few weeks or not again until late fall. I put mine in alphabetical order, by type (tall bearded, intermediate, etc), because then I can remember which bed to go to find it! I tried putting the colors together, but they lose their appeal when you have 20 different light pinks blooming together -- as a mass they are beautiful, but the individual iris just don't stand out as well. I also keep track of when they bloom, and how many increase they put up, the hybridizer's name and year introduced, so I think your lists are great!

Sue Zone 6a

Lol! I don't organize mine as of yet but i do put them in rows with nice markers and then go down the rows and make lists and number them.

I've tried to color coordinate when I plant. Or at least get colors that go well together next to each other. Usually the first bed I plant looks great and by the time I get to the last one, who cares. Just get it in the ground.

You should try it and see what happens. Go dramatic. You want cars to stop and people to stare. Maybe you can give someone else the iris virus.

Here are a few combinations that I liked in my garden:

Memphis Blues and Renown (blue and white) trite, but really pretty together.

Forge Fire and Space Viking (burgandy red and dark purple) When the sun shone on these two in the morning, they looked just like sparkling amythests and garnets. Beautiful!

Exuberance and Canned Heat (orchid pink and burgandy red) I really liked this combination.

Paul Black, County of Kent & Rhinelander (dark purple, white with light purple stitching, medium purple) Unfortunately Rhinelander bloomed late so I didn't get to see it with this group. I didn't consider bloom times when I planted.

I'm thinking a pink and black combo might be interesting. (I think I will try that next year). Or a yellow and black combo. Something with orange beards planted with an orange iris.

Okay, I'm ready to start planting again. I have to quit. Hope it helps. Good luck.

I try to keep good records of my iris too. When DH weeds, labels magically disappear. And sometimes the labels are in the clump and DH can't find them (at least he can weed!). So I have to refer to my bed lists quite often.

I just finished planting all of my irises today 3 hrs later. I couldn't finish it all when my daughter was napping so I had to finish it later. I am stiff tonight. It was nice planting in the cooler weather than during the 80's like in the summer.

I didn't think they would all rebloom together, wouldn't that be nice, but like you said easier for extra feedings/waterings.

The bed I planned for the 40 TB iris was too big. I only filled about half of it with the iris. I think I will plant annuals in the rest, and things I grow from WS this year. That way I have room next year for more iris.

I put them in groups of three's according first to their approximate bloom times, then I put colors that I thought would go well together, then planted them according to height. I didn't put all the pinks together, and so forth just colors that I thought would look good together.

I ran out of markers planting perennials, and lily bulbs. I left the tags Schreiners shipped on them temporarily until I go buy more markers. Also, I made a chart of the cultivators locations.

Now I am hoping that my 3 naughty kittens don't dig in the areas I just planted. I am trying to place 2 if not all of them, but you try to get rid of a kitten. It is one of the hardest things to do as there are so many. I shouldn't have taken all 3 because I felt bad for them. I am sucker for animals in need. They wouldn't be a problem except for using my gardens as litterboxes. I have tried all kinds of pepper. I am looking into getting Bonide Repels All products. While I was planting the irises they had of course got into the freshly tilled bed, and used it. Of course, their nasty poop ended up all over my jeans......Anybody want a sweet kitten? lol

I still have to plant a few mums, and ten Oriental Lily bulbs. I had ordered garden phlox, carnations, scabiosa, and a butterfly bush in early summer. However, they still haven't come. According to shipping it may be end of Oct. or early Nov. before I see them...sigh...awful late to be planting perennials. I dont know if they will make it over the winter.....


Danielle

We plant our irises wherever we have space--but then we don't have designed garden beds as we work with hybridizing the smaller irises. They always get marker tags & we really should chart the beds. Last yr on DG there was a posting of a blue & white iris bed. It was lovely. We once grew black & yellow tulips, the black one being 'Queen of Night'. We had to find a yellow which bloomed at the same time.

Black & yellow irises would be an interesting combo. Since there are quite a few 'black' irises (really very dark purple), I think it would be best to build from those, then find yellows with the same bloom time. Black & pink would be done the same way. Agree that rebloomers should be in the same bed because of care; not sure if the fall bloom could be coordinated as easily as spring. but for a combo, Pink Attraction is quite reliable even in MA; suggest Rosalie Figgie as a dark one, but not quite black. IrisMA speaking from DD's house in Ohio.

I do like to place images of my iris purchases side by side and see if I like the colors together. they are going to stay where they are planted for 3 to 5 years, after all, and I like an eye pleasing display.

but I'm wild for a rainbow of vivid color, too. so I tend to like neon colors planted next to a good foil color, and lights beside darks. For me, too many pastels together, or too many neon colors together, dulls them all.

I planted one bed this year to be a "rainbow". I used only SDB's as they all bloom approximately the same time, AND they are the only ones that has an almost true green. It is a 15'x3' bed, and starts with deep red through dark purple. I will let you all know if it works. I'll take a picture. I wish I could do it with TB's, but there just isn't a green and they are too hard to coordinate the bloom time. The very first iris I ever planted were supposed to be a "black & white" collection I purchased. They were black and white -- however, the blacks bloomed two weeks before the whites, and were completely gone before the whites started blooming. That is what started me on finding iris and when I got the virus!

Back home now. If you like a certain color, they can be planted by bloom time (season) so the display will keep coming. Remember thant bloom time, early etc. is different at the different source garden, & may not match up. If you grow medians as well as tall, you can carry your color for a couple to three months.

Danielle Try mothballs or mothflakes to keep kitty out of your garden. I trained my puppy to keep off my houseplants with it. Also used it against male dogs using my evergreen shrubs as a toilet. I found it is the only thing that works. A little goes a long way.

To keep track of my irises in the garden since labels do get lost, I coded mine with numbers that matches their name in folder in my computer. I used Excel to chart them on, adding the hybridizer and year. Then I put my digital camera and photo editing software to work. I took photos in the fall, or when I'm done dividing, of the irises in sections. With my editing program, I added numbers for each iris in that section.

Below is a small section of irises in one of my stock gardens, sort of bare now since I sold many over the summer. Will be filled again next year with more divisions from new irises.

I used mothballs one year to keep the rabbits out. It worked like a charm.

I cant use mothballs or anything dangerous/poisionous. I have a 19 month old daughter who is outside a lot and I cant have anything down potentially harmful to her.


Danielle