IRIS GALORE!! Picture sharing!

Red Zinger is beautiful

Beautiful Blomma!

Great reds; does Play with Fire have the bluish glow IRL that it has in your pic? The only one I have is Company Red, and I am very pleased with it. It is huge and a very saturated color.

Thanks for compliments. Yes, Play With Fire has that glow in the center of the falls. I bought it from Napa Iris in 2010 and this is the first season it bloomed. However, it is outdoing itself. When it didn't bloom it was concentrating on producing 3 blooming stems. I am using it in my hybridization program.

Below is another photo of it

Good for you. Are you crossing to red or adding yellow or pink to keep the red showing.

A few pretty ones in bloom today
Magharee -Trade Secret - Fatal attraction - Night Addition & Awesome Blossom. I love the little "freckles" on night addition

All are lovely.

Check out Magharee as it doesn't look like mine or this one in plant files.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/93763/

I agree. My Magharee is much paler - I love the color of yours, Bea.

Not sure why it is darker than what is shown on the Schreiners tag & web site.Perhaps it because we have so many cloudy days and it does not fade. But I like it ..so it's a keeper.

http://www.schreinersgardens.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SIGO&Product_Code=MAGH&Category_Code=MO

Sure is a beauty!

Hurry Up Sun
Happy Thursday BIF's!! Still digging for club sale this Saturday, and a few orders! Club meeting in Joplin Sunday! I was going to share a picture of Elvis Dreamer, but apparently didn't take one!! bummer Everyone have a great week-end if I don't talk to you sooner.

IrisMa, I crossed it with Nigerian Raspberry, see below

NIce!

I keep saying I'm going to quit watching this thread because I have no more room for irises but I am mesmizered(sp?) bu all the beauty and can't spot looking.

Peggy

You might as well enjoy the pictures. You might see something which will go better in your plant scheme & can replace plants. Do you belong to an iris group?

Another seedling bloomed. Child of Joyce Terry x Bee pollinated. Looks like Aphrodisiac, which I have also.

1] seedling
2] Pod parent, Joyce Terry

Love it!

Braggin Rights
Happy Tuesday BIF's!! We have been picking tomatoes!! YUM! The iris sale was successful and went to the meeting in Joplin!! Still potting iris and digging orders! Everyone have a great week!

Two more from yesterday's stroll around the yard.

Tall cool one & Indigo Princess

Here is one I purchased in 2010 from Napa Iris. It is PRETTY FLOUNCY (Burseen 2002).

Doo Wop Memories
Love Burseen's names!! Happy Sunday BIF's!! It is 92 degrees and I'm playing computer games!! It is too darned hot! Kisses from Kansas. I need to write up a design for my Dykes flower bed at the new garden! I won the region 18 contest and will get a free room at the fall convention!! Whoopie!

Greeting from Kansas!! We are heating up!! 93 already and we are supposed to have several days over 100! I'm still potting iris getting them ready to move to the other garden. Hope you are all keeping cool!
pic Dark Drama

Lovely, Nicky! It's hotter than Hades in my garden - I have the water running almost all the time to keep up with it. 99 yesterday and 97 today. Ugh.

In WYOMING it has been in the 90's for 3 days. Unusual since that is out July and August heat.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinsgarden/7453472058/][img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8011/7453472058_b0b86cf274.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinsgarden/7453472058/]100_6063[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/caitlinsgarden/]caitlinsgarden[/url], on Flickr

sites not working

My first two iris': Midsummer Nsght's Dream and Making Eyes

Chocolate Moose
Happy Sunday BIF's!! Went to Tulsa Iris Society sale yesterday. Bought 9 iris. Four older DM winners for my Dykes bed. Well sounds like more potting this afternoon. Wish me luck in not burning up. Next year I will need to invite anyone close enough to come see our iris garden.

Great to support the iris society sale & glad that you found what you wanted.

What a beautiful Iris. I will look for it. I assume it is a tall bearded?

Nicky, I definitely want to visit your garden next spring! Please give me a 'head-up' a week or two before you think I should visit.

I heard a strange thing that last day or so. A nursery owner was going through my garden and noted the huge fans of bearded iris. Not too many, only three or four. She said she had heard that they will only bloom once here, then not again. I find that strange to understand. Granted they usually don't grow here so just having them is unusual, but why they would only bloom one year doesn't make sense. Mine had tall beautiful blooms and plants last year in one bed, tall healthy plants but no blooms in the nextbed. Neither had bloomed the year before. This year, no blooms. But the beds don't make it out from under snow (especially last year) very early. I am wondering if that is the issue. If they can't bloom in their usual time frame, then they won't bloom at all. Ideas? Maybe I will ask Schreiners.

Mary, the reason for that is that the irises set their flower buds at the end of summer. So you might get an iris from a grower that has already set it's flower buds, and will bloom the year after you have planted it, but then due to your conditions won't bloom again.

I have this happen with siberians I sell. They set their flower buds here, and then someone in Florida grows them and they bloom the first year, and then never again as it's too hot for them to set buds. I've been doing an experiment with some people on that, and it does seem to be the case.

Zone 5b, you should be able to grow irises, even with the extended snow cover. We normally don't lose our snow here until early April.

Regular iris grow fine, even JI, but bearded tend to rot. I sent a note to Schrieners and they said that the bearded need a 6-10-10 type fertilizer before blooming and about a month after. Maybe the plant doesn't have enough 'poop' to form buds without the additional fertilizer. Going to give it a try this year. The plants are so healthy and large it is really disappointing that they won't bloom. If that is the case I will have to trade them away.

What I said previously is not the case then. If JIs grow well, then it's not too cold for bearded.

What kind of fertilizer are you giving them now? Sounds like it might be a little high in nitrogen, which will produce great foliage, but no blooms. I would suggest trying 'Bloom Booster fertilzer. IrisMA probably will be better able to answer this.

Is it too wet there?

low nitrogen is best. I've never tried Bloombuster.

My problem is, I think, that I wasn't fertilizing at all. I just put a liquid fertilizer of 2-5-5 on them. NPK, so nitrogeon is fairly low.
I am not sure if wet is the problem. I have tried not covering the corms, lightly covering, using hay, using leaves. Uncovering as soon as I can get to them. Not uncovering til they completely are snow free. I believe that letting them somewhat do their own thing is the best, although a little dirt (maybe half inch) might help. but I wonder if I uncover them too soon they are then subject to cold and wet which rots them. If they are covered for a while longer as the snow melts, then they may stay frozen longer and not subject to rot. We will see what happens this year. And I will certainly fertilize them next spring with a light N fertilizer.

Do you have the top of the rhizomes sitting up high, like a duck on water? I wouldn't cover them at all, snow is a good insulator, and doesn't cause rot here.

Yup, I sure do. the first year 90% rotted. Second year was the hay, third year was a little dirt, fourth year nothing. A little dirt yields the best results as long as it is removed fairly soon into spring. Like when it defrosts enough to remove it. And I have found that the ones on a flat garden are almost better than the slight grade of a hill.