It was bound to happen ... the TBs!

First TB of the season, as always, but blooming on a very stunted stalk this year.

AUTUMN BUGLER

Hurray Laurie. You have a beautiful cultivar - and great healthy foliage. I wish mine looked that way. Maybe next year. Sigh.

But I love the white beards on that one.

You do have great looking foliage! *Sigh* I'm always having to deal with leaf spot here. It's always wet and often times humid, so leaf spot tends to take a strong hold early on. It must be the differences in our climates, unless you spray yours? I've never had to spray, but after this year's disaster, I'm definitely going to!

I hate to admit this, but I do get leaf spot every year right after bloom. I suppose that's because it doesn't normally get really hot until toward the end of bloom season. Heat coupled with summer rain seems to be the trigger here. You'll probably see leaf spot appear in my pics as the season progresses.

I don't spray because I have too many companion animals and too much wildlife hanging around my iris beds. I avoid chemical use wherever possible for their safety's sake.

Well, at least you get leaf spot AFTER bloom and you don't have to look at it along with your lovely flowers!

I have never sprayed for the same reasons that you don't, but now I live in a housing complex where there is no wildlife around, so I think I can get away with it.

BTW~ I'm assuming that some of your wildlife includes deer? I was wondering if they ever nibble at your irises? I've been asked this a couple of times and I never know what to say. I've heard that deer don't like iris, but I've never had to deal with it myself, so I don't feel like I can give a definitive answer...as some plants are supposed to be "deer resistant" but end up being nibbled anyway!

Indeed, deer visit in abundance here. And yes, they will eat irises, but only when really hungry. I have the most trouble in early spring when the deer are starving coming out of winter and the irises are the first plants to green up. The deer will keep them cropped down to the rzs until their natural browse leafs out. Then they'll move on to tastier delights. The deer sometimes come back in fall when their browse has defoliated for the winter and graze the irises again. That can be an even bigger problem than spring because they often uproot newly planted irises just before freezing weather sets in. Irises that get pulled up and replanted that late in the year are almost certain to die over winter.

I have read reports that iris-eating deer are not a problem in the PNW because there is adequate browse available to them all year. Since irises are at the bottom of their list of preferences, they won't generally bother them as long as they have access to other browse.

Grazing, however, is not my irises' biggest problem with deer. It's trampling. Those sharp little deer hooves can both sink and damage rzs while compacting the soil around them so tightly it will suffocate the poor plants.

If it ain't one thing, it's another.

Laurie

The only trampling of irises that goes on here is when my JRT "Buddy" gets a wild hair and decides to jump the fence!

That must be true, about the browse in the PNW being adequate all year, because I've never really heard other people complaining about deer.

Laurie, how many TB do you have? Mine are finished, so I will enjoy yours.

I currently grow a little over 200 named TBs (and a bunch of unknowns), about half moderns and half historics. I divided and replanted most of them last summer, though, so I will have very little TB bloom this year.

Hi Laurief, I am trying to find some TB's that bloom at the same time as my red/orange poppies that complement the color of the poppies in a flamboyant way...The poppies are blooming now, as are the first sibs - Ceasar's brother - which looks good with it - also TB "Clear Morning Sky" (or something very similar) - let me know if you happen to spot anthing that blooms with the poppies in your zone, ok? "Autumn Bugler?" Sharon

A first time bloom on this very historic, small-flowered TB. SANS SOUCI is a cute little variegata.

Sharon, I'm afraid I have no way of accurately identifying which TBs might bloom with poppies because my few poppies are in a different bed with a different microclimate and later bloom period than my iris beds. There are tons of dark purple (black) and bright yellow TBs that bloom at different times in the TB season, and any of them would make a vibrant contrast to your poppies if they bloom simultaneously. I just don't know which ones would bloom at the right time for you. Generally speaking, though, if your Sibs are starting, you're probably in the latter part of TB bloom. If that's true, AUTUMN BUGLER wouldn't be a good choice. It's consistently my earliest TB.

ENGLISH COTTAGE has the second most delicious fragrance in my iris beds and THE most perfect pale plicata pattern. This iris is all grace and delicacy.

laurief, I think a lot has to do with what is planted where, and if it has been in the same place for awhile...The longest planted sibs are blooming, same with irises, but none of the ones divided or just planted last year...and I moved a lot of things around, so maybe that is why it seems still early iris season to me...Well, just to establish some sort of time frame, how do the TB and sib seasons relate to each other? They both have early, mid and late, but assuming for the sake of comparison that they are all planted in the same spot and are established clumps, what season is first and lhow do they overlap?

VERY generally speaking, early Sibs start blooming with the late TBs, so there is some overlap of their bloom seasons. Sibs will (or should) extend past TBs season, though.

Of course, there are always bazillions of exceptions.

SUGAR BLUES has the single strongest, most delicious aroma of any iris I know. You know it's opened from across the yard simply by the perfume that draws you to its side.

Oh, and it also happens to be one of only two TBs that has ever managed to rebloom for me.

Caitlin........I sent you mail

I love English Cottage, which is strange for me because usually the bright ones draw me. Very delicate.

Susan

MISTY LADY has an odd habit of taking her sweet time unfolding her standards. If you look around the web, you'll be likely to find a number of unflattering pics of the Lady with pinched, tight standards by photographers too impatient to wait for her to expand to her full glory. She's a gorgeous girl, even when late freezes stop her stalk in mid-fan.

For those with an appreciation for historic irises, FABIAN presents classic tailored form in a small-flowered, smoky neglecta.

Another old historic, ELDORADO stands out in brilliant jewel tones.

Oh that's a beauty!!!! Add Eldorado to my wish list!

IMMORTALITY has a reputation for being very slow to settle in and for resenting transplanting. In my garden, her performance has been almost non-existant. She's a stingy, unreliable bloomer for me. I have to admit, though, that she looks better this year than she ever has.

I'm envious of all the people around the country who seem to get near constant bloom out of IMM all season. Undoubtedly the most famous and probably the most widely grown of all rebloomers.

Immortality, Baby Blessed (SDB) and Clarence (SDB) are the only rebloomers I have consistent from year to year. I managed 7 heavy re-bloomers last fall due to our cool & wet August tricking the iris into thinking I had an early fall.

DR. BERNICE is yet another old historic, this time in eye-catching brown tones. Small-flowered, as seem to be most irises of that era.

ASIA is another old historic and first-time bloomer here. A shy one, ASIA is blooming on a 3" stalk in the center of the clump. Don't even ASK what I had to do to get this photo!

Fun color, but PEACH JAM has absolutely no substance. Two flowers opened yesterday on this first-timer, and I couldn't get a really attractive shot from any angle of this floppy thing.

Laurie--are we laying on the ground alot lately? Dwarfs and short stalks do that for me... :)

Laurie, I read your post above about the deer problem. I know you have a lot of irises, so I don't know if this idea would be practical, but maybe you could try it for some of your most cherished varieties....I make hardware cloth hoops that I like to use for new seedlings, etc. - mainly for dogs, rather than deer, but it would probably work for them too. The hoops could be staked into the ground if you think the deer might just pick them up...Then when the irises are taller, it can be moved.

I wonder if the deer are the problem with "Immortality"? I have what I think is that one and it is my best grower and rebloomer...(Don't know for sure if that's what it is, because it was supposed to be "October"!)

Wanda, I don't lie down as much as squat, kneel, and bend a lot. My beds are currently planted so obnoxiously closely that I can barely maneuver myself into photographing position on foot, much less on belly.

Sharon, I appreciate your suggestion about the hardware cloth, but you're right, I do have waaaaay too many irises for that to be practical. Until I win the lottery and can install 6' chain link fences around my iris beds, I'm just going to have to deal with deer damage.

IMMORTALITY has a reputation for fussiness in certain gardens and growing conditions. Mine just happens to be one of them. It's not a problem for me, since I have several other nice whites that are trouble-free here.

On with the show ...

Like many of the old historics, CHENEDOLLE is so small-flowered that it probably fits better into the MTB class. It was, however, originally registered as a TB. This bright little doll snatched my attention right away from the large, ruffly, modern TBs with which it shares a bed!

This message was edited Jun 12, 2005 6:31 AM

LAVANDULACEA is another new-to-me historic. Unlike the screaming variegata I just posted to this thread, L. whispered his pastel melody to me so I was compelled to come close to appreciate it. Such softness in this delicate flower.

Hey--I"ll la on the ground to photo a dwarf flower. "Contortions -R-US!
Neighbors already know I'm crazy anyway.

GLOWING EMBERS is another new-to-me historic with classic, tailored form and rich red bitone colors. Nice tall stalk, too.

I always enjoy the soft blues that complement most other colors so beautifully. AFTER THE STORM would look lovely next to the soft yellow LEMON REFLECTION which is blooming today in a different bed.

laurie, I hope you write professionally, or your word crafting talent is being wasted! Your descriptions belong in an iris photo book....

Well, Laurie does have TBs. That gives me hope. My family may be moving to my husband's homestead in a few years and that is Central Maine! I definately hope that doesn't happen but we may have to care for his aging parents. :-

Laurie would only chainlink keep out the deer or would any 6' fence do it?

Roni

Hooked if you are in on this one, what survives for you? MIL likes my irises would like to send her a few now so she's gets to have the gardener do the work! ;o)

This message was edited Jun 13, 2005 8:57 PM

Roni,

Deer farms around here use 6-8' chain link to contain their animals and keep out predators. I suppose any 6' or taller fence that a deer can't crawl under or push through would work. Deer netting is useless here. They just shove right through it.

Laurie

Thanks for the advice, now back to the show...

Here's a TB that bloom special for me this year. Holy Kosmoly

Such a rufflely white one!
We have an Elizabethtown here in KY too.