I just ordered from Schreiners

Gezz, I just had to have more iris this year. I have been looking at Schreiners and struggling with my order. I finially decided to go with this small order so that I would still have space next year and could order some then. Otherwise I would be out of room. Of course I am trying to think up more places I could plant but we will see.

I ordered-

Aegean Wind
Gypsy Romance
First Wave
Grand Amiral
Pledge Allegiance
Spirit Mountain
Secret Service
Amplified
June Krausse
Crackling Caldera
Lovely Senorita

and my bonus picks are -
Dodger Blue
Company Red

You might notice that I have ordered lots of Blue. I LOVE blue iris. Probably because I just don't have blue flowers in my garden. At least not until TB iris. Then I wanted AGEAN WIND, love the bi-colors and SECRET SERVICE because it is so dramatiic. Then I had to get some other colors so that it wasn't a bed of blue iris, so got the pink and some orange. I love orange in daylilies so we will see about the iris.

I did look again at Napa before placing this order at Schreiners. But ones I would have wanted were sold out. I will just have to order there again next spring. This will have to hold me for now.

Good move Rita! I think you'll be very happy with your iris selections, plus you'll have room for "shopping" over those long cold winter months...

Rita, you have D-mail...

I really would like to get more for this year. But I just got to the point with my Schreiners order that I was so confused and didn't know what else I wanted. There was part of the order that were must haves I thought. Heavy on the blue. But I couldn't plant jst blue so was looking for otyher colors to balance it out. I really didn't do a great job on that.

Schreiners has RAVE ON, I don't know why I didn't get that instead of CRACKLIN CALDERA.

Problem is its so late in the season that some iris that I wanted to get because they just really appealed to me are sold out wherever I look. I had hoped to be ordering again much earlier than this but I had to order after I got my two orders in. Well, I got it in my head that I had to do it this way. I should have just ordered earlier and dealt with planting however I could. But I was trying to make it easy on myself and logical. That didn't exactly work out.


As for CRACKLIN CALDERA if any of you out there grow it and love (or hate it) I would love to know. I am thinking this is a love it or hate it type of iris. No in between just ok.

I get this "last chance" fever too and usually order more iris and daylilies, especially if it is a site with paypal (perfect for last chance fever impulse buys!)

Betty- You have D-mail too :-))

I have thought about changing the Schreiners order. But I can't seem to find anything same price to change CRACKLIN CALDERA too. And I don't want to just drop it and loose my from bonus iris. So I am just going to leave it and plant CRACKLIN CALDERA in an out of the way spot or give it to a friend. It seems like this order has been difficult for me to decide on from the start and each time I revisit it, I seem to get further confused and more of a headache. Sometimes its better to just quit while your ahead, even if its not perfect.

C.Caldera is an interesting orange blend. I see no reason to decide to get rid of it before you see bloom.

I guess I must have liked the picture at Schreiners or I would not have even considered it. But I am going thru pictures at Superstion from a website that Betty told me about. And there low and behold is a picture of CRACKLIN CALDERA. A much better picture than at Schreiners by the way. Now I know why I put it in the shopping cart. The darn thing is STUNNING!!!!!!

picture at Superstion-
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1134105943032621402ZlOyOB

I also ordered from Schreiner this year, and last year, and the year before, etc. etc. One that I ordered last year on half price is Decadence. Love it! The falls and the standards are so ruffled and laced that I could not get a good photo until it fully opened.

That is it below.

Here it is fully opened.

I love the streaked varieties. This is my favorite 'Ziggy'

I like lots of ruffles too.

Crackling Caldera - WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess you'll have to order from Schreiners too LOL!

There's another one from Schreiners that blew my socks off -- *Moonlit Water* -- oh mannnnnnnnnnnnnn!! My husband already thinks I'm crazy!

I have Aegan Wind but it can't compare to World Premier (Schreiner 1998), another purchased from Schreiner. Huge blooms with flaring falls. It is stunning

Another view of it.

It is stunning. I like the really dark blue falls.

And here is Aegan Wind

Schreiner describes the falls as inky-blue purple. It puts on quite a show in mid-June. Plenty of buds never fails to bloom for me.

I love color and this one can't be beat. Megabucks (Tompkins 1990) is striking. Love it!!

Edited for spelling

This message was edited Aug 8, 2010 9:38 PM

AGEAN WIND appealed to me because of the blue standards. I see blue falls often but not blue stards often. Anyway I think I will be happy with my choice AGAEAN WIND is a very pretty iris. At least I think so. But World Premier is more dramatic what with the contrast between the whate and the very dark blue.

If you want to see something that looks near perfect, check out Joe Ghio's CENTER ICE...

I like it (CENTER ICE) the best of his 2010 intros. A really pretty iris.

Here is Crowned Head, another with wide flaring white falls, purchased from Shreiner. .

Crowned Heads was hybidized by Keith Keppel.

bloma- So you prefer flareing falls? I prefer them to go straight down instead of flareing. I do like them while and with lots of ruffles thought :-))

Gosh my Schreiners order was just delivered by the UPS guy. Talk about fast. I remember last year that I really didn't know exactly when they would come but arrived early July. And my impression of the rhizomes was that they were quite large. This year I was wondering if my memory was true as to how big they were. That considering I only had Mid America (smaller rhizomes) and Napa (nice rhizomes) to compair them to. But once again the quality of the rhizomes just blows me away. They are big. Nice and big.

Most I would say the same size as the bigger of the Napa ones. The rest are humongous. Between that (and speedy) and the nice little picture cards on each iris plus the extra bonus plants and I know why I love to order from Schreiners.

So when you order you qualify for bonus iris. I had picked Dodger Blue and Company Red, which I received. Then two more bonus iris. JAMAICAN DREAM another of their 2010 intros. It really does not appeal to me judging from the picture, Then COME AWAY WITH ME a 2008 Schreiners intro is the other new bonus. This one looks truely aweful to me in the picture. I would never have picked either of these. But I suppose thats the way it is, no one can know your tastes. But more so I bet they have these as bonus because they have extras of them to give away.

JAMAICAN DREAM - I took these pictures last year at Schreiner's when it was a numbered seedling, and I was pretty impressed with it because it looks like a really good bloomer with great color.

And the clump shot:

Thanks Betty. Of course clump shots are always impressive. But the color, or color combinations, of this iris just does not appeal to me. I figgure I will plant it anyway as I could be wrong and really like it when it blooms. Haven't decided about the other one.

Some of the iris I just got.

Yes I agree that the rhizomes from Schreiners are very large. And most of mine from last fall grew big and bloomed wonderfully this year. (and then some of them caught the rot, but that's another story.) I got some really small rhizomes from another company last year, and only a few of them bloomed, and they are still small. Schreiners must feed them super grower or something! I like the big 'zomes, 'cause that way when I start cutting off rot there is still something left!

The irises on the west coast form large rhizomes--more water although this yrs' rain made some smaller.

Well, we probably will have whoppers this year with all the rain we have had in Iowa! How do they avoid rot with all the rain they get? I know they don't have borers, but surely there are slugs, etc?

Rita, I must say those are fantastic looking rhizomes. Ya did good!

Those are the biggest ones. But the others are still pretty darn big too.

I already planted 10 out of the 15. So I have five more out of the order to plant. I made my labels for these ten. First I juggled them around looking to see what oreder looked best to me to plant them in.

Then I had already measured and put in a stingline and sticks as to exactly were they were going to go.

They went in the front yard in a section not even considered at first for iris. But I had to 'find' room somewhere so decided this would look nice. I laid out what fit and it just happened to be ten. Those are Amplified, Cracklin Caldera, First Wave, Grand Amiral, June Krause, Lovely Senorita, Pledge Allegiance, Company Red, Jamaican Dream and Spirit Mountain. I will have to get the exact order they are in tomorrow as I didn't have a chance before it turned dark. But the blues are broken up with other colors between.

So to see were they are. First this part of the front yard -