My Order From Mid America Iris

I just faxed off my very first order for Mid America Iris. I have never ordered from them before. But I wanted WEDDING NIGHT that I just had to have after Betja posted a picture on another thread. Last year I ordered from Schrieners and I am sure I will order there again. I feel Schreiners offers a better deal as they have the collections and the Red Star discount were you pay half price. Plus they give you lots more bonus iris than Mid America does. However they don't seem to have the newest, as in the past three years, of some of the really big name hybridizers. Mid America has a better selection there.

So my order is -
Baltic Sea
Barbara May
Wedding Night
Flame Amber
For Lovers Only
Imposter
Indian Sunset
Laced Credentials
New Face
Oklahoma Centennial
Purple Ritz
Brilliance
Circle of Light
Coral Splendor
Fiery Figure
Just Kiss Me
Love Me True
Milan
Pacific Fire
Pursuit of Happiness
Blue Rising
Fall Fashion

And my four bonus plants are-
Beauty Becomes Her
Calgary
Pink Invasion
Penguin Party

That makes 26 iris including the bonus iris.

I better get cracking on my new iris area. But then I guess no panic as they only come in July.

Rita, I just sent you a whole barrage of D-mails about Mid-America, my favorite iris nursery/garden...

Hee, hee, hee. I just read them and responded. I am very pleased with myself. I ordered there based on your recomendation and looks like I picked a good one to order from. Thank you for stearing me in the right direction and for the lovely pictures and d-mails.

Mid America is wonderful. I have always had fantastic irises from there.

I usually order their new intros from them, if I'm feeling spendy. If it's an intro that was made in previous years I usually look to other growers, like Snow Peak.

Keep in mind Schreiners is primarily selling their own intros, as far as new ones go. You aren't going to find new intros from other hybridizers usually at Schreiners. Schreiners irises are gorgeous hybrids, and they have been the top of the line for many years.

Polly, I have no problem with Schreiners, I think their iris are gorgous. And I love their intros. I was just looking for some by hybridizers they did not have. No loss, I will order from Schreiners also. And its not that I care if an iris was hybridized last year or ten years ago. I just buy what I like. I do that with all the types of plants that I collect. I buy what Ilike in daylilies, don't care if its 30 years old or last years. I only care if I like it. And I don't care if it fits the current fad either. So I took the same idea in iris. The thing is I am picky about the Tall Beared Iris I like, I will go thru many modern fancy ones and not like them so I pass them by. But it is the big flowered ruffley ones I like, the historic iris are mostly too plain for my taste.

I didn't think you did, Rita. After all who has a problem with Schreiners? No one. I just wanted to point out they don't carry many new ones from other hybridizers.

I love the big flowered ruffly ones too.

Hope to see some of your pics soon :)

Last year I ordered from Schrieners and Zebra Gardens. I have just over 50 bearded iris and they should start blooming soon.

As to Schreiners, I have been looking at theit catalog most evenings drooling over the drop dead gorgeous flowers. Its really going to be a challenge for me to find room for more iris beds, but find room I will. Even with this order I just put in, I don't feel I have nearly enough. I see the pictures people post and I just go bonkers wanting more TB iris. The colors are stunning and I love the big ruffled flowers.

Rita, when you ordered from Schreiner's did you by any chance get their bonus iris from last year, EVENING TIDINGS? That is a totally beautiful iris. Here are pictures of it both from my visit to Schreiner's last year and from my flowers this spring. Iit seems really vigorous and I think it is absolutely gorgeous -- what color!

Clump shot from Schreiner's

And finally in my garden last week:

That EVENING TIDINGS sure is beautiful. I am glad that I did get it as a bonus last year. The clump shot is just awesome and the closeup from your garden, one can really see the flower well.

I am telling you I am just going crazy waiting for mine to start blooming.

Oh wonderful! Evening Tidings! Those pictures are gorgeous! I need more blues, pinks, and lavenders. I have it too from last year. I recieved as bonuses last year : Jazz Solo, Tumalo Sunset, Evening Tidings, Got the Melody, Winter Waltz, and Laced Cotton (which I believe is an older iris).


The only one that has bloomed so far is Winter Waltz. That just bloomed today.

From Schreiners as bonus last year I got -
EVENING TIDINGS
GOT THE MELODY
HERE COMES THE NIGHT
JAZZ SOLO
MAGICAL ENCOUNTER
MISS MOONBEAM
SPOT STARTER
TUMALO SUNSET
WINTER WALTZ

I see lots of them are the same ones you got as bonus last year.

Wow! That is a lot of bonuses! You must have ordered a ton of iris lol.

I only ordered 20 iris from them. I know there is this choose bonuses depending on what you spend but when the order came, I had extra bonus plants they gave me that I had more than the plan called for.

Oh man, that stinks! I ordered 27 irises, and recieved 6 bonuses. Most were extra bonuses as I only qualified for one I believe.

They (Mid America) told me they are out of Barbara May and Purple Ritz so I will not be getting them. Bummer.

Meanwhile, in my garden, EVENING TIDINGS bloomed today. It was so windy that I tried to take pictures but I don't know if they came out as they are still in the camera. Will try again tomorrow.

I was supposed to be sent Evening Tidings. However, either they didn't send it or it didn't bloom this year. I had a few that didn't bloom this year. However, I already recieved an iris that is a mystery from them. I didn't order it, it wasn't a bonus, and it kinda resembles my Winter Waltz. However, the form is off and color slightly off. I thought they sent that instead of Laced Cotton. However, Laced Cotton bloomed today. I have one TB left in bud. So I will have to see what that one is. Out of the 34 TBs from Schreiner's only 5 didn't bloom this year. Rock Star, Touch of Mahogany, Midnight Oil (heard was finicky), Jazz Solo, and Evening Tidings did not bloom.

I've had Midnight Oil since 2006 and it has bloomed for the first time this year.

Rita, if you still want Purple Ritz, Napa Country Iris Gardens still lists it. It is one of theirs. But unfortunately I don't know of anyone else who carries Barbara May.

Betty, thank you. I will go look at Napa County Iris. I figgure if you are recommending them they must be a good place to buy.

Meanwhile I did add to my order from Mid America Iris. I added -
Ink Patterns
Cloudscape
Lynette Blue
Luxury Ruffles

And I also get GOOD LIFE as an additional bonus.

Of course you are the one that convinced me I really needed INK PATTERNS LOL!!!

Rita, I think you will really like LUXURY RUFFLES. I put it on my "order list" last year when I was up there because it really is a beautifully ruffled iris. I was very impressed with it. And two others I also decided I had to have were HAPPY HUGS and MONEY IN YOUR POCKET. Would it make you feel any better to know that I like INK PATTERNS more than BARBARA MAY? BARBARA blooms earlier, which is good, but INK PATTERNS is still blooming for me and every flower looks terrific. And I'm down to my late bloomers now. So if you do eventually end up with both you'll really extend your bloom time.

MONEY IN YOUR POCKET

Betty, I would love to end up with both. We will see if I remember to order earlier next year. I just haven't been ready to order much earlier than I did. I am always so busy planting other things in my garden in the spring. I am finially finished with my daylily beds. All filled up and no more room. So if I want new daylilies I will have to remove something already here. Any new bed created will be an iris bed rather than a daylily bed. Iris are top of my want list for now. Of course that could be because I have so many daylilies by now, buying so many for years now. The yard is full of them. But they do add so much in summer color.

I am now finding out that the TB iris do the same for mid spring color. I know someone suggested to me that I get some of the other bearded iris that bloom earlier but I am not going to. I am drawn to the large ruffled flowers of the TB and I love the high stalks. I also love the intense vivid colors on TB iris.

My TB are just starting to bloom but mostly I see unopened flower stalks when I look out into the garden. So the big show has not really started yet.

The other iris I love are the Siberians and I am also adding those both last year and more this year.

You are going to have the most incredible gardens! Please do take pic's to show us. My "spring show" is nearing the end, but now we're starting to get ready for our trip up to Salem. -- yea! But it looks like we're not going to hit it at the right time this year, unfortunately. Last year we were there at peak bloom and it was in the 90's, and it was really gorgeous. I just hope we're not sloshing around in the mud, trying to take pictures of soggy TB's -- but I guess I'll take whatever I can get...

Here's a picture of ASTRO BLUE, a new one for me this year and still in bloom. It's a lighter mid-blue and I think very pretty.

Thanks, I do love my gardens. Besides the daylilies I have well over 200 roses and hundreds of bulb lilies. Also lots and lots of shrubs. Many other perennials and vines. Lots of spring bulbs. I have lots of birds, butterflies and bees here as I have made my yard wildlife friendly. I love it when the hummingbirds visit. So my love of plants is not limited to one thing. I love flowers and I love lots and lots of color. I also love the very full cottage garden look.

My plan is to have a series of things blooming all the time so that it goes from one to another and the garden sort of spotlights whatever is in bloom. So that it would go from the spring bulbs to the iris, to the roses, to the lily bulbs, to the daylilies, next roses flush and like that. The idea is to have masses of blooms, like the hundreds of roses, daylilies and lilies, not just afew things blooming here or there. Plus I also fill in with lots of annuals.


I started by trying to extend my daylily season with very early bloomers and very late. The late part worked great, but the early part did not. So then I decided I needed to go with something else for earlier flowers. So I started with the TB and Siberian Iris. The Siberians work well for me as they fit right in with my heavily mulched gardens. But I had tried bearded iris before and killed them by mulching them to death.

This time I learned how to grow TB iris and realized I would have to give some thought to it and create beds were I treat them differently. Must have worked because they inceased well and so many bloom stalks.

Sounds fabulous! You really are quite the gardener. I hardly get anything fertilized around here because I'm trying to keep up with weeding, spread pre-emergent, raking leaves that constantly fall from our orange and Carolina cherry trees all around the place, etc., etc. But I do try to keep up with the iris fertilizing, as I found out what happened one year when I left the fall fertilizing off ... very small bloom the next spring! But everything else (mainly roses and daylilies) still look pretty good even without the fertilizing, and maybe someday I'll be able to keep up, if I can control the spurge, nutgrass, etc., better... LOL

I had to laugh at myself when you brought up ordering -- that's one of my favorite winter pastimes. This year Paul Black posted Mid-America's 2010 introductions back in December, then posted their downloadable catalog in January, and I placed my order on Feb. 1st. And I placed my Blue J order by email on Jan. 1st and my Snowpeak order on Jan. 19th. Then I also placed my Napa Country and Keith Keppel orders on Feb. 1st, followed by my Superstition and International Iris orders on Feb. 10th and 12th. Then it was on to my Joe Ghio/Bay View Gardens order on March 1, followed by Sutton's, Aitken's and Rockytop Gardens in April. And there were also a couple of smaller orders to other nurseries in there too. Gee, do you think I have the iris virus? I've heard it's incurable...

Ha, I have lots of plant crazies so you are in good company. Rose crazies, daylily crazies, lily crazies and now iris crazies.

I order too many daylilies over the winter for spring delivery. So it's not too much different from what you were doing LOL!

I didn't fertilize my iris last fall but I did this spring. Should I do it again in the fall? I am very pleased by the amount of bloom. I think it was the Schreiners site were I read 60-70 percent of newly planted iris expected to bloom first year. Mine are 95 percent. Just about everything planted last year has a bloom stalk. I even did find some 2 stalk bloomers were the increase has sent up a bloom stalk. It actually never occured to me that these wouldn't bloom this year. I wanted them to bloom and they are doing what I want.

Also the stalks are tall. Very few shorter stalks and those are no were ready to bloom so they should keep on getting taller. The tallness (is that even a word?) of the bloom stalks appeals to me. Makes the flowers even more noticeable.

Betja, when you coming to Salem? Hope you will stop here as well

D

Dee, we're supposed to leave here on the 18th and be up in the Salem area the 20th thru 22nd before heading on to Washington, but we just found out this afternoon that my husband needs a second cataract surgery down at UCLA because of a complication from his first surgery last week -- so now things are up in the air. I think they're going to have to wait at least two weeks before doing the second surgery, so maybe we can still do it. If we do make it up there we'll try to stop by to see you. I just heard from Keith that he's thinking peak bloom will be on the 22nd, so that would be great, but he said the cool weather and rains have really taken their toll. How are things in your garden?
Betty

Geez, I just pulled up this message to update it and its a mess. All that coding that should not show.

At any rate I had e-mailed and asked when my order will be shipped. I heard back this morning that it was dug and ships out today.

So I am excited to get my new order. Also wanting to see how big the rhizomes are.

Going out in afew minutes and measuring and placing my stick markers in the already prepaired new garden bed so as to be ready to plant.

Rita, your rhizomes from Mid-America may not be as large as those from Napa Country this year because of the continuous rainy spring and early summer weather they had up in that area. They just kept getting pounded week after week with no let-up. I received my Mid-America order last week and it was really great, but some of the rhizomes were larger last year (some were huge!) when they had those 90 degree temps like the week I was there last May. It's not their fault -- there's nothing they could do about the weather -- and the rhizomes are still really good. It's just that the California growers had such a great spring and the rhizomes from Napa Country, Superstition, Joe Ghio, Suttons and others really show it. I just received my order from Keith Keppel up in Salem today, and in his note he said "This has been the worst season, growth-wise, since I moved up from Stockton in 1993..." So my point is that I hope you will try not to judge rhizomes you get this year from the Salem area (including Schreiner's, by the way) when compared with those from Napa Iris based on this one year because this has been such a unique year, and maybe by next year the weather situations could be reversed. Mid-America included a note in my order that if I am not satisfied with anything I should let them know and they will make it right, but in my case it was a great order and I am totally satisfied. And hopefully yours will also be a great order too!

Well, unless they are really small they will grow. Its just that I am NOT patient, I want them to bloom next year. And they will not do that if they are planted late and or are too small.

I really much prefer my iris already be planted. This feels very late to me.

As far as next year, it will not matter, I will be out of room. So I will only be able to do a small order from one place maybe in case I want to replace some already here.

It's so amazing to me that for you it's late for planting iris right now, but then I must remember how much further north you are than I am. I can't even start planting my new iris in the ground (I carry them over the summer in 1 gal. pots) until mid-September when the days get shorter and slightly cooler because I'm afraid they would absolutely fry if I tried before then! And I usually finish planting by mid to late October. It's pretty warm here through October and doesn't really start cooling down to the 60's or 50's until about Thanksgiving, usually. And of course, when I plant them from pot to ground they're already rooted, which really helps. We have such totally different situations! What's the high temperature back there during the day? Yesterday it was 101 here, and today was supposed to be cooler -- 99. And actually it felt pretty good out there at dusk when I finished potting up my Keppel order just now...

Has been in the 90s recently here. Cooler 8-+ today.

Yes, it has been hot, hot, hot here this summer. A very hot summer and a should be a record breaker for hot days in July this year.

But last year I planted my order from Schreiners in early July and just about everything bloomed this year. I know planting them early had alot to do with it. If at least 80 per cent of these iris (from both my orders) don't bloom next year, I will not be ordering from either place again. So we will see.

I usually have about 60% to 70% of my new and old irises bloom each year, so that's my standard. And I would certainly agree that if 80% do NOT bloom for you next year you might want to look elsewhere -- although once again I would emphasize that this was such an unusual and terrible year for the Oregon growers that you might want to reconsider that decision later on. I've had some really small rhizomes give me beautiful blooms the very next spring. Blue J Iris in Nebraska usually has smaller rhizomes than the other nurseries I order from, but they are great bloomers. I will always order from Blue J and just ignore the rhizome size because they have so many irises that I simply cannot find anywhere else, plus they almost always bloom the first year for me. I really hope you are not disappointed this year, especially since I recommended those nurseries to you. I'm not the best iris grower, for sure, and I'm always moving things around from year to year and have discovered that whenever I move an iris it almost always will take a year out and not bloom the next spring for me. So that always affects my spring bloom percentage too, because I just seem to have this need to move things around! I know you like to move things around too, so please let me know next year if the iris you moved this summer bloom for you. I'm thinking it's probably just me rather than the iris...

Last fall I moved iris in september and everone that I moved bloomed. I figgure the moved ones will be alright.

Don't worry, I know the two sources you recommended and I ordered from are good ones. It just never even occured to me that they would be shipping this late.

But I am positive I will be going back to schreiners. Earlier works much better for me and I guess I just want what I want. Of course Schreiners didn't have these iris I ordered this year. So now I got them and will have them so no need to order from Mid America again probably. We will see.

If you ever do order from those two places again, request shipping in early July -- that's what I always do, and I received my Napa order the first week in July. Paul Black emailed me and said he needed more time to keep them in the ground, and I got his order last Friday.

I just figgure they ship when they are ready. And as to not ordering again, its much a matter of the fact that I will not have room. So I figgure I will only be ordering for replacemts of ones I did not like or did not thrive. I am not going to be going around looking to get rid of any so it would only be truely a matter of knowing something would not work for me. I guess I could order one here and there but I much rather order from one place.

The mid America order just came (UPS) 15 minutes ago. Of course I had to unpack it right away. Some of the rhizomes are nice and big, some are big but not as big and many are small. If they are too small they did send two. A nice thought but too small will not bloom next year no matter if there is one fan or two. I am going to at least start planting them this afternoon as I have the iris bed laid out. They do look healthy as expectly and should grow. I guess we will see next spring how many bloom first year.

I must say last year I got really big rhizomes from Schreiners and mostly small rhizomes from Zebra gardens. The schreiners just about all bloomed (two no blooms) but most of the Zebra Gardens ones bloomed also. So I know its not always the rhizome size that does it.