Going through Iris Withdrawal.

Since we moved into our new home about 2 years ago, I can still see my old home from our front yard. I wasn't able to dig up all my beautiful Iris garden as I had hoped that the new people moving in would love them as much as I did. NOT ! ! ! They have dug them up and they are gone. OMG.... Well, I am down on my knees, asking for a little favor. If any of my favorite friends and fellow Iris lovers find that they just have one or two too many, might I buy or pay for postage or make you something nice for your extra Irises. My heart just feels empty as does my garden with out a few to get it started again. This is what it used to look like. It hadn't started to bloom much yet but when it did, it was gorgeous.
So If anyone has a couple extra, could you please let me know and we can maybe work something out. I have lots of Rhodies but they are huge

It is Awful when Younger people or people that can care less about the beauty around them destroy and toss some one elses masterpiece that causes joy not just for the owner, but for so many other people that quietly appreciate them and will never tell the person who labored for so long who often does not realize their efforts give so many other people peace when they see them all blooming. Atleast people enjoyed them when You were there. I hadnt been online, i was out of town for two days or i would have responded to this earlier. Most people are reluctant prior to.. or during peak bloom season to respond; as they still need to wait till they divide stuff or move stuff about 6 weeks after blooming like mid summer in most Zones to see what they will part out or trade. That would be best time to ask as people know what they can part with and what bloomed for them and didnt. Also, Oregon has More Commercial and Retail Iris Vendors and Plantations and Nurseries then Just about anywhere in the US.. along with California. They are where the Giant potato size Rhizomes come from to Nurseries here on the East Coast so You should have more ease finding Iris to grow then alot of us gardeners here on the East Coast.. with Our West Coast Garden Envy.Most of us would only dream of hitting Up in Person California and Oregon Iris Grower's Fields with the Rarest and Also Newest Best Cultivars being Bred. Do a google search for Tall Bearded Iris in Oregon for Now.

Thank you themikesmo, I was just heartbroken when I saw they had totally ripped out all the plants I had planted including all the other plants I had growing in the front yard. It was like they couldn't be bothered with dealing with them. Had I known that I would have taken them all with me. I thought I was being a good tenant. This is what my front yard looked like. That is all gone now. Nothing left out front.

What kind of Little Potted Tree is that hopefully You were able to take it. We were in a townhouse Apartment for 8 years and used to grow all our stuff in pots..we had a little purple smoke tree and a gardenia in huge pots we brought with us when we moved to this old brick farmhouse in 2006 and Some Roses including two Blue Girls. If We ever move.. we again we will take all of our daylilies and iris with us as well... as majority of people in our area as well are ingrates that would do the same exact thing they did to your efforts.. they would rip them out or mow over them as it is just easier for lazy people that appreciate nothing natural or involving hard work and getting there hands dirty. for every 2 people that go by and enjoy our gardens theres 8 ignorant people that want to kill us for enjoying something. Sometimes we think people dont deserve to enjoy our gardens but we enjoy them and thats the main thing and the few people that do and children who are not yet set in there ways get an interest sparked..also makes our efforts worthwhile..just my personal opinion.

No, I left that but it had been planted. It was a Japanese Maple. They actually pulled that out too. I have many of them at our new home so I thought it would be nice to leave it there. We moved into my dearest friends home when she passed away two years ago. We lease it from her daughter. It is surrounded by pines and the back yard is full of Rhodies. They are just starting to bloom now. But the one thing I dont have are any Irises and I absolutely love the irises. Guess I best go to the big stores and lawn and garden stores and start shopping. Last time I trade bartered with my pine needle baskets but I developed an allergy to the pine oil. So.... can't do that anymore. We also have this awesome Magnolia tree in the front yard too.

Oh, Gourdbeader, I feel ya. I labored for two years over a lovely wildflower and herb garden and when I sold the house, the new owners ripped out everything. They installed turf and a privacy fence. I could not drive past the house ever again after that. Fortunately they put all of the rejects out to the curb, and years later I met a man who rescued all of them and treasured them in his yard.

On that note, I just signed on to offer some Honorabile rhizomes. I have to move them, and do not have a lot of open space. I can also share Coronation, Michael Paul, Constant Companion, and a noID historic that resembles Abelard. Please PM me if any of these interest you.

photos: Coronation(tall), Honorabile(int), Michael Paul (dwarf), ?Abelard?(int).

Your Honorabile and Coronation Close up Shot are both Amazing Gypsy..You Should Submit them here on plantfiles..You Abelard by Sass You Sent me in Trade is Looking Incredibly Healthy and it is starting to send up a stalk with a huge healthy bud! Peacherino possible is Also looking good too.. and the one im going to compare to Melanie for You Also, but no buds yet. but its still very early here as EM Bloomers havent even popped yet.

I have already made up my mind that if/when we sell house, I will add a clause about contacting me first before ripping out anything but response on my part will hv to be 48 hrs or so. I doubt it is enforceable but it will put them in their minds that I REALLY love plants and being that I will do the digging, they will Be encouraged to call me so i do the work.

Of course, I will take with me whatever is practical and I can't get elsewhere. Then again as years go by I will likely be downscaling gardening not the other way around.

Kool..I really would like to leave a legacy of ones we add here even if were gone so im trying to get beds so established and hill coming up driveway so covered and added with different colors that were not here before we moved in.. that it will be nearly impossibe for some lazy bum to eradicate them or remove or mow over them mwhaha. If we ever leave and it's on a positive note i might just take one or two of the bestt rhizomes of each cultivar and leave the rest..if i leave on nasty circumstance however or im sure they will all be removed or not taken care of at all i will take them all and if i have no room where im going i will disperse them to other people i know will appreciate them even if i have to give them away. Hopefully we can be blessed and healthy enough to keep adding for some years.. but life is short You never know..one can pull out in the road and get run over. You have to enjoy what You have when You have it.

" You have to enjoy what you have, hen you have it !".......Well said !

I love the clause about contacting you before ripping anything out.

Here would be a wonderful advert. Garden for sale, 50 years of backbreaking hand labor lovingly tended by aged gardener. Three seasons of beautiful bloomers, fruits and vegetables. House is included in sale. Minimalists need not apply!

Seriously, I fully intend to sell that way. Dead serious about it. Silent prayer, DGod, pls make it so that it is a sellers market when/if I need to sell..,else I'll have to take buyer with blackest thumb if that's all who is willing, lol

But seriously, of my gardener friends that sold, NOT ONE was happy after visiting post sale, not one. Probably best to just let it go completely (unless you are moving around the corner)

Mittsy, I like your ad.

Themikesmom, thank you and those photos are in the plant files. Irises are such a gorgeous subject. That ?Abelard is a fast spreader, watch out! :) I'm jealous of your buds. I have a few weeks yet until my dwarves kick things off.

If somebody thins out their Abekard, I would love to pay postage for a division. I have the perfect place for it

Vossner, we're not positive of the ID for that ?Abelard, because it came as a no ID. We should have it figured out this season. Either way, I would be happy to send you a big, fat clump!

lemme know whenever convenient.

Thanks Arlyn and Gypsy :) heres my First EM Bloomers that opened today. Intermediate Bearded Irises 'WILD IRIS GERMANICA' collected by Linneaus in Italy 1700's..and 'JUNE ROSE' 1988 By Blodgett. There Just starting here.

WOOW!! June Rose is gorgeous! :)

yep

OUUUUuuuuu..... Love June Rose.

thanks everybody..i recieved it last Fall from Williamson's in Tennessee if anyone wants to get it.or when it multiplies i'll be happy to share..i usually like ones with yellow horns and beards and try to avoid the orange or red horns but i like the pinks especially the rose themed ones or rose color pink ones with orchid-like veining.. so i..said what the heck and bought it. i don't have a real expensive camera but the one i have a Kodak C195 Easy Share has a Very Unique wide lens like one of the most expensive professional cameras you can get..you can pick one up on ebay for like 80 bucks maybe even cheaper. i usually have to take like 50 picks to get like 4-5 good ones. i've found early evening light to be about the best for me. Still frustrating to get good ones..patience not one of my strong points or virtues but worth the reward especially in winter when you can look back at bloomtime :-)

themikesmom, Me me me.... I would love to have a few when they multiply. I am going to have the greatest Iris garden come next spring. I am just so excited that I am going to pee my pants. Whoops... hahahah. Iowen is sending me some come September so I will get the bed all ready for them. Let me know what the shipping is and I will send it to you along with something special too. Thank you Mikes mom.

There is an old saying about what a gardner should do when they leave their garden "Don't look back and don't go back!'

Yea, but the hardest part of this is that my front yard looks out over my old back yard and its just a block away.

Franzone5, that's s truism. Gourdbeadet, that would b sheer torture to me

When we sold my childhood home in WI , I brought the large pink peony (9 divisions of it) which had been at the backdoor. (Turned out it was 'Sarah Bernhardt.') Did not dig the red ones in front of the house. Name? They were ripped out & conifers which blocked the windows were planted. Kids called them burglar bushes. They also removed the dogwood in the front yard. Didn't bloom but had lovely red foliage in the fall. A friend who was a botany professor said that he knew of none in any arboretum in the area. Just for fun I map googled the house lately & whoever has it now removed the burglar bushes & has a nice little tree where the dogwood was & a pleasant looking shrub on each side of the front walk. Glad that it fell into better hands as far as garden was concerned.

You all aren't going to believe this. My old neighbor from the home that I moved from, called me yesterday and said that the new tenants are going to dig up the iris garden and wondered if I wanted some of the bulbs????
Go figure. Just when I thought all was gone forever, God heard my pain and look what happens. I am going down there today with my pick and shovel in hand. Will show you my rewards later.
Woo Hoo and thank you. I still want the ones that have been offered though. Like I say, you can never have too many Irises.

Hurray !!

What a wonderful solution. You can always find happy homes for them is too many for you. thank you for saving them & wonderful that the person called you.

Yay! Wonderful news!

OMG in heaven, Have you ever tried to dig up an iris bed that hasn't been touched for 3 years. We had to take an ax to break up some of the 1 1/2-2" tubers that ran rampant it the whole bed. I was like trying to dig into concrete. Well I got a huge amount but had to stop. It was taking two of us to get any headway. We actually used an ax to split into it. I am going to get into separating them tomorrow. Whew ! ! ! I filled up my trunk of my Nissan Altima.
"

good luck & glad that you have help.

this has nothing to do with irises, but I had an impossible time recently trying to divide a crinum. I actually broke my fork thingy. It seemed like the base was close to china and I just simply couldn't get to the base for dividing. I gave up.

Back to iris, what would be some precautions, planting wise, to take so that when it's time to divide, its not the nightmare that I had with the crinum or Gourdbeader trying to divide her iris. Three years doesn't seem like long enough to have had that kind of a nightmare trying to divide.

The plants were in longer than 3 yrs? or particularly good grower? or great soil?

Well this was the bed when I first planted it 3 years ago. It was awful. I have so many irises like the tallest ones, and as I am looking at the photo, those were some wild iris that are the yellow ones. They totally took over the whole bed.
I also left the large planted pot with terraces and they tossed that out?
Oh well, Guess it just wasn't their cup of tea.

The yellow iris is a species (I. pseudacorus). Be careful not to plant it near water as it will clog up the pond or stream. The yellow & purple & white & purple are garden hybrids. Do you know the names? have records where you obtained them? I am sorry that they disposed of your terraced pots.

I got the garden hybrids here at Daves in trades for my pine needle baskets.
Cant remember exactly who I got them from.

Check Edith Wolford in plantfiles, it might match one of your hybrids.