Iris details

I've been thinking about this for some time, and I am wondering if it would be possible to change the bloom time detail options for Iris. The AIS register has the bloom times listed as iris bloom time seasons, rather than calendar seasons as it is in the PlantFile details.

For instance, some in the South are reporting blooms already on iris that won't bloom for me until at least June.

Let's take Tall Bearded Iris 'Waterworld' as an example, which AIS has listed as a mid season bloomer.

diamndsnjns in zone 9a reported that it was blooming for her on March 8, 2007 http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3260600 , which by PlantFile details would make it Late Winter/Early Spring, which is probably mid season for that area, and I'm assuming the SDB have already bloomed.

However, this exact same cultivar won't bloom for me in zone 4a until *at least* early June, which by PlantFile details would have it blooming in Late Spring/Early Summer.

See the confusion? We could have all the bloom times checked off if we take all the zones into consideration. After thinking on this for a long time, I've decided that it would be much more accurate if we could change the PlantFile detail options to match AIS's bloom time seasons.

As I've been entering the bloom time details for iris, I've been using this criteria:

AIS E = Late Winter/Early Spring
AIS M = Mid Spring
AIS L = Late Spring/Early Summer
AIS VL = Mid Summer
If they are noted in AIS as a rebloomer, I've noted that as blooms repeatedly

I've not come across any entries that have anything other than those checked off.

What I'm proposing, which I think would make the bloom times make more sense to us, no matter where we are located, is to change the options to this:

Late Winter/Early Spring changed to Early Season
Mid Spring changed to Mid Season
Late Spring/Early Summer changed to Late Season
Mid Summer changed to Very Late Season (there are a few of these)
Late Summer/Early Fall - eliminate
Mid Fall - eliminate
Late Fall/Early Winter - eliminate
Mid Winter - eliminate
Blooms all year - eliminate
Blooms repeatedly - keep for rebloomers or simply rename "Reblooms" since it will rebloom at different times dependent on what zone it's planted in, if it has enough time to rebloom at all.
N/A - eliminate - I've not met an iris that didn't bloom at all.

By changing the details in this fashion, it will also keep the existing details accurate, since I've almost gone through the whole iris database in the last two years, and know that they DO match what I am proposing.

Food for thought, but I think it would make the database more accurate.

I'm assuming there must be a reason that this is not a good idea? I'd love to hear about it.

Dave or Terry will have the real answer, but I bet it's because the bloom time fields are shared across the entire PF database, not unique to irises so it would probably require a major programming change to make irises have different bloom time choices than all the other plants.

I think it's a great idea, Joan! I've often wondered about this when I am entering info. I was using the same system you were, but I think changing the wording would make things less confusing.

I don't know for sure, but I think it could be done. Different plants have different info to post.....why shouldn't this be possible?

ecrane, I don't think the details are the same all through plantfiles.

Thanks Mendy, I think it would be much more accurate.

What I'm proposing would be similar to the Hemerocallis bloom time details, which are these:

Extra early (EE)
Early (E)
Early midseason (EM)
Midseason (M)
Late Midseason (MLa)
Late (La)
Very late (VLa)
Reblooming (Re)

There are some details that vary by plant type, I know that there are special things that have been added in for some classes of plants, but for bloom times right now it's the same exact checkboxes across every single plant in Plant Files. That's why I think it might be a big change to make irises different than everything else. But it's just a hypothesis, only Dave knows for sure.

Sorry--I didn't know there were other plants that had different bloom times already. My theory doesn't hold then, if daylilies are already different then I can't think of why irises would be different.

But it's not the same for all of them eecrane3. Lots of them are similar, yes, but not all are the same. See my post right above yours and check it out for yourself.

Yeah, I posted at the same time as you did. I thought that the bloom times were the same all across Plant Files, I knew that special additional things had been added in for certain groups of plants, but everything I had seen the bloom times were always the same so I figured it would be a big deal to make irises different. But like I said in my last post, if there are some things out there that already have different bloom times then I don't see why irises couldn't be given different times too.

Joan, I think tis a great idea. I'm going to do this from now on. Not that I put many pix in plant files. Am not a good photorapher. Seem to forget to take my camera outside far too often..

inanda