Starship Enterprise

I started a post about this on another thread but decided to present the question as a thread of its own.

Last year after purchasing 3 rhizomes of Starship Enterprise I had 1 bloom normally, 1 bloomed extra small flower and the the third didn't even put on foliage but stayed round and firm. I do not know how they have faired in our extra rough winter; so far they are still snow covered. Regardless, since it was absolutely stunning in my garden I purchased 4 more this season in hopes of speeding up the increase. One garden I questioned whether they carried it or not indicated they did carry it at one time but it did not grow well for them. I also noticed on Mid-America's description of Rainbow High by Keppel as an improved Starship Enterprise(?????).

I am curious what DG gardeners have experienced first hand. Anyone willing to share how Starship E. did/does for you and how long you have had it??

K

St. Enterprise is more spectacular than sibling Lightshine. However LTshine is a better grower.

Lucky ladies to even have that gorgeous iris grow at all. I love it, but on asking various nurseries, I have been told it's not available in Australia.
Oh well, hubby says I don't need any more anyway. I only have 230. But there are so many more . sigh...
Jean.

Probably not available as people know that it is not a great grower. Try Barry Blyth's facinating plants.

I'm on my last SE. The first one did nothing for two years then rotted. The next one bloomed and died. I bought one more last year, but I won't buy SE again if this one doesn't make it.

Mine does fine, but it doesn't increase fast. It does bloom well though. and has large blooms.
here is a pic from last summer

Picture not enlarging.

hmm does for me.
I noticed some wierd stuff going on lately with the pics here,
maybe it will get straightened out soon, I hope!

Twice purchased, twice rotted.... I was so disappointed that Schreiner's picked this one to name Starship Enterprise because I wanted it for my Star Trek/space garden. Booo! Won't buy it again, needless tosay.

Starship is a weird one. Yes, there have been lots of problems reported. More of them have come from knock-offs, though.

So I bought mine from Schreiners. 1st year it bloomed poorly. 2nd year it was a stunner, but only 1 good stalk and one poor stalk. It has not increased that well. Will be giving it a bit more feeding this year, as I've heard it's a very heavy feeder and needs more feeding for these large blooms. This will be their 3rd year to bloom.

It's planted immediately next to Lightshine, as they are the same colors. Lightshine is not nearly as pretty, seems to have a problem with our climate as it's blooms wilt in a day - not good substance for here. But it's double the clump size.

In fairness to Starship, it is planted at the base of a large holly, and nothing planted next to the holly has done well. Even the SDBs planted there have lanquished and barely multiplied. Decadence is there and is barely alive. I'm going to move all of them this year.

I would love to try Starship Enterprise, the blooms are so pretty. I wonder if the cold winters up at our altitude would be too rough on it? I'm thinking about it anyway just to see.

FrillyLily who did you buy your Starship Enterprise from?

Here is a pix I have of the large bloom from last season. It still amazes me. It looked like it had its own battery pack from the glow at the hafts and beards.

I have to see it in bloom again. When I took this picture the shady part of the day was on it. It was like it had captured the sun and stored it.

K

This message was edited Feb 13, 2010 12:38 PM

Oh, that just glows!

Wow, now when you click on the photos to enlarge they are much bigger.

Here's another view.

lol when I clicked on the photo to enlarge I got NOTHING!

I bought mine from Jungs seed catalog. (sp?)
I don't get the catalog anymore, so I don't know if they still carry it or not.
I haven't ordered anything from them since. They sent ok stuff, just that I ordered from other places since then.
I've never fertilized mine, although I do put straw around them. That does rot down and form sort of a 'compost' and then I put more on.
When it starts layering up and getting too thick, I dig out some and mix it up and such.
My mom's seems to do well also, got from the same place, but she has it is some fairly rich dirt and it is really loose.

The photo enlarging on this site seems to be going through some adjusting. I clicked on it several times and sometimes it came up enlarged after a few seconds of delay and other times it didn't show a photo at all. Try more than once. I have noticed it the last couple of days on other threads here as well. It is inconsistent.

K

irisawe, that is one spectacular bloom! Mine never looked like that, although they were pretty, but my plant just sort of bloomed itself out and reached the point where there was nothing left. Now I'm moving on to trying Rainbow High this year.

We purchased ours from Schreiners, bloomed first year. Very lovely. We are located in central Kansas, zone 5.

Appears the pictures are being displayed in the original size and resolution instead of enlarged thumbnails as they were previously. I checked a couple of mine on another forum and they were restored to almost original size also. Great for everyone except those on slow dialups. The larger file size should load much slower than the thumbnails.

If they are going to keep the photos at the larger size I think we should go back to sizing them down before submitting them. I have always kept mine at 100-150 kb when I submit them. When I check on my old posts the thumbnails come up at the size I submitted; they should be fast loading even for dial-uppers.

For example, check this post of mine on the lily forum:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1019415/

Post #6872045

Click on the thumnail of Bonbini.

I've never sized anything - I thought they did that.

I purchased both last year.. Lightshine from Iris4U and Starship Enterprise from an E-bay vendor... I'm anxious to see how they do. Lightshine looked great in Bob's garden in Denver, so I expect it to do fine here.. as for S.E.... time will tell.

I received Starship Enterprise in a trade year before last. I potted it up and just planted it out last year. I planted in raised under some pines,front of some dwarf hollies right at the sunny edge of a shade bed. It bloomed for me and was just georgous. Remains to be seen how it looks to date because every time I try to do some gardening it starts doing some kind precipitation on me.Went from nice weather/comfortable working in sweats to overcast,plummeting temp to snow and rain by 4 yesterday. Cock-a-mammy weather.


Sorry about the glare. I try to take picture just at daybreak but I missed it this day.

irisawe, that is a great picture! I can't wait! Thanks for sharing &:-)

I want that RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! Beautiful.

I pre-ordered one this year. I hope it does ok!

It is prettier in person!

Big time.

D

Dee is right. I got mine from her. I had no idea what I was getting in to.

Dee what do you think about a cross between Gypsy Lord who is a prolific producer with white standards and Starship E. ? I really like the Starship look of predominantly white standards with the glowing yellow more at the hafts area. So many of Starship's children seem to have yellow standards and I do not like that so much.

K

I bought my SE from Schreiner's in 2007. Bloomed ok the 1st year, was absolutely gorgeous last year, with 4 stalks and a lot of blooms. The last time I looked (before it was covered with a foot of snow!), it had several good size increases that I am looking forward to seeing this spring. I have it planted with Millenium Falcon and Oympiad, so it really stands out! I think it does best in "virgin" soil, soil that hasn't grown iris before. I had it before from a swap, and it didn't make it all.

Sue

irisawe you never know what you get, with SSE, as look at the genetics behind it.

Might throw something interesting with Gyspy Lord

D

So what do you have in your virgin soil? There has not been anything "Virgin in Las Vegas for over 50 years. LOL. OMG....

Sharon, have you changed your moniker now that you're a worm farmer?? LOL

think she's referring to "no irises grown before here" soil.

I bought my SE from Schreiners some years ago. Love it! Grows well here in Wyoming, zone 4. It is possible that this one needs more cold to bloom than a warmer climate can provide.

Blooms here first week in June.

Here is another view of it.

Yes, I am becoming a worm mother. I even has the guy down the street two houses starting his worm bin. I do not know what he is going to with them because he does not garden. I forgot to ask.

Fishing bait?

On another thread I read where worms love coffee grounds. Have been throwing them in the garden all winter. I want happy, productive worms. I'd like to know how to have a worm bin. Could you share a little info on that?

K

Right now I am going back to bed but later today I will give you all I know. There is a forum on worms.