Help me pick 6 iris

About 4 years ago, a drought in this area destroyed part of my garden. This year, I have finally had the time and money to get it rebuilt. One part of this area is an iris bed. Most of my iris are ones people have given me - I have the old fashioned blue and purple and the huge white irises with a few white and purple mixed in. The following are plants I have purchased so I know I have these:

BATIK (Ensminger 1986)
CHAMPAGNE ENCORE (Aitken 1997)
CIRCUS STRIPES (Plough 1976)
LADY FRIEND (Ghio 1981)
TOUR DE FRANCE (Keppel 2004)
JAPANESQUE (Farr 1922)
QUEEN'S CIRCLE (Kerr 2000)
TACO SUPREME (Ernst 1987)
TENNESSEE VOL (Niswonger 1993)
Millenium Sunrise
Neon Cowboy
Superstition

I have room for 6 more plants in the iris area. If you only had room for 6 more plants, what would you plant? The area is full sun all day and is on a slope.

Thanks,
Phyllis

YAQUINA BLUE
PICTURE BOOK
BRILLIANCE
DANDY CANDY
THAT'S ALL FOLKS or SUNNY BUBBLES
LOUISA'S SONG

Sugar Blues - Excellent color and reliable rebloom. Very Fragrant

Persian Berry - Later blooming and wonderful color. And fragrant. Nothing else quite like it

Vibrant - Bright and beautiful. Lights up the bed

Immortality - White and bloom twice a season. Lovely

Blue Skirt Waltz - First year bloom is gorgeous. Highly recommend it

Pride Of Ireland-Pretty yellow

Earthborn
Ascent of Angels
Oratorio
Brilliance
Eyes Right
Blueberry Bliss

I would choose:

Temple of Time(rich golds and more)
Midnight Revelry(huge darkest red purple magnificent blooms with dark blue purple in beard!)
Louisa's Song(she sings for herself)
Heaven(White with great substance with red orange beard and blood stained shoulders)
Nora Eileen(rich red purple with blue beard that pops the color, great form)
Yaquina Blue(a great medium blue with lots of substance and vigor and it radiates across the garden)

Wouldn't want a blooming season without these.

K

The 1st 2 are my pics I added to DG. The rest of the Irises haven't bloomed in our garden yet, but these are DG member's pics which, to be quite honest, were the pics that helped me choose these Irises for our garden last year! :D

Trillion
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/277809/
Rain on Frost
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/276905/
Parisian Dawn
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/128830/
Vienna Waltz
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/201041/
Conjuration
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/236243/
Cajun Rhythm
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/230074/

Wow! Susan! Trillion and Vienna Waltz are beautiful!!!! Interested in a trade?

Naomi &:-)

well that is a loaded ? if you saw my field you would think there is no way I could answer that, but here are my top 6 this year......
At first blush
Aurelie
She's all that
Bewitchment
Borgello art
Pink Point
Ah but there are so many, one can't stop at six:)

Naomi,
I sent you a D-mail :)

Secret Service
Kevin's Theme
Hook
Rustler
Midnight Oil
Intrepide
Ozone Alert
Ima Kinda Lima
Doodads

oh, dear, I'm afraid that is more than 6 :)

Ditto on 'Hook' It's tall and beautiful....

Hello Phyllis,
I hope you'll let us know which ones you picked! :D

I'm listing only one because it stole the show last year in my zone 5 garden..
Queen's Circle

Add Schreiner's 'World Premier' agree on Queen's Circle

Main Street
My Generation
both are 2009 introductions from Larry Lauer

I'm too new to iris but am enjoying looking up pics of all these iris names.
is there an iris data base like they have one for the daylilys and clematis?

SusanLouise - your pics are beautiful. I love the Parisian Dawn and Cajun rythm.

Now i'm off to look up Queen's Circle.

Great thread Badgertalk.

I only have about 45-50 TBs. This is my first year with them.

Out of the TBs I have the 6 I would absolutely not do without are:

Tumalo Sunset : gorgeous, big flowers in an intense orange. High bud count on a nice strong stalk.
Presby's Crown Jewels : big flowers that lasted a long time
Afternoon Delight : gorgeous color combination, that is unusual but breathtaking
Awesome Blossom : nice apricot/peach/pink color with super form. Flowers, were large, and lasted a long time
Edith Wolford : another amazing color combo, an all around great flower, lasts a long time.
Secret Service : great colors with a purple that appears to be black on the falls, bright orange beards, large flowers, tall

I don't have very many irises either but I'm with flower_addictnc about Afternoon Delight - it was sent by accident an order - but it is one I will always have to have in my garden.

Thanks for all the feedback!!!

I'm looking at the different plants that have been suggested and will probably make a purchase in June or at the time most places are doing their digging. I will post my selections. After looking at some of the suggestions, I am thinking maybe I can squeeze in more than six.

Best Bet
Edith Wolford
Breakers
Persian Berry
Immortality
Beverly Sills

Classics:)

I want to thank folks for their suggestions.

Most of my yard has been turned into gardens but this area has been a problem area. I live on top of a hill with no trees so the sun is intense. On Easter Sunday 2007, we had a hard freeze - 23 degrees- that killed all kinds of things. There are winters here that never get to 23 degrees. Then, that summer, we had one of the worst droughts on record. You can imagine what my garden looked like at the end of that summer.

This year I was working away at getting this area fixed up after these two back to back natural disasters. I got a large gazebo type structure off of Craigslist and covered it with shade cloth to give everything a little break from the sun this summer.

So, two days after I get everything in, we have 15 inches of rain. I don’t want to complain because I just had some garden damage while other people lost their homes and a few even lost their lives. I live in one of the more flooded parts of the city but because I live on a hill, the main problem I had was no electricity for five days and things getting washed out. The water dug holes in places, it was very strange – there were just big foot deep holes in places.

I went to Kroger’s to get some groceries-the photo is what I saw next to the parking garage. The water came up so fast it pitched this car off of the top of the parking garage.

I hope that this garden area can get established this year. I hate to think that next is locusts or some type of plague. I feel like Scarlett in “Gone with the Wind” – “As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again”. I’m going to be standing out in the middle of this area with a trowel in one hand, shaking my fist at the sky and shouting “ As God is my witness, I will have plants in this garden.”

ouch!

I like short irises in front of the talls - my 6

Protocol
Guru
Starwoman

then
Blackalicious or All Night Long
Again and Again (for its rebloom)
Touch of Mahogany (much prettier in person than in photos)

I have a short one that I'd like to give to a new home. Rosemary's Dream. Anyone have a flattie that they would like to trade?

nice one mittsy. Rosemary's dream is a nearly historic (next year it will be) Miniature Tall Bearded, and it's a top award winner, WW Award 1986, W-W Medal 1994. blooms about 23" tall.

too bad for me I have never liked flatties! darn

Ditto on Afternoon Delight. I won best of show with it a couple of years ago. I think no garden is complete without Mesmerizer and Arizona Sandstone. A good new red rebloomer is Lest We Forget. Here in arizona it blooms multiple times, spring and fall. Picture is of Arizona Sandstone.

I saw Indian Sandstone in Cooley's display gardens, and fell in love with it, but I've never seen it for sale.

If Badgertalk checks back in, there's always:

Citoyen
Polish Princess
Toasted Watermelon
Hollywood Nights or if you prefer a median, Constant Companion
English Cottage
Cat's Eye - it's a standard dwarf bearded iris but a gorgeous, gorgeous iris

oh Redheadclan - that is a beauty of an iris.

I'm still checking in. I'm trying to figure out if I can expand the space for irises. The peak season to plant is getting closer.

I just checked on Arizona Sandstone and Iris Melodies has it for $8.50. I have never bought from them but maybe someone here is familier with them.

That is on big beauty.

He's redheadclan here at DG if I'm not mistaken--IM was sold out earlier this season--I'm headed back to check again:lol:

I actually have 2 more Arizona Sandstone and have a source for a few more.

do you have a photo of it?????

I'm off to order:)

Got one Arizona Sandstone and one Oh James (Blyth)--I am a fiend for bright orange and it looks like a winner!

This is a link to the photo on the site--last photo on the page:
http://www.irismelodies.com/cart/page2.html

This message was edited Jun 5, 2010 7:32 PM