How do you buy your iris?

Lovely garden Wanda & it takes work to keep it that way. Our snow has melted (less than yours) and we had a couple melting periods before the next snowstorm. Some crocus were coming up under the leaves and with those & snow piling on them were a sickly yellow-green. If they ever get sun they will be green again. Our irises start in April when the pumilas bloom.

Wanda, your notes are taken to heart. Our climate is better here for iris and few ever die but it is interesting to read what they really hate -- and you have learned from your experiments. I do hope you have a great year this year, but I find it fascinating which conditions work poorly for you in Iowa.
I have been following your posts for more than a year now and am the grateful recipient of some of your irises my first year on DG. I learn a lot from the successes and failures you post here.
In spite of your failures, you seem to have a lot of lovely irises!

2006 was the most glorious spring I have ever had in my flower beds. Incredible blooms, perfect weather to keep iris fresh & perfect. 2007 was dissappoinitng, but just a blip in the road.

I planted my first iris almost 55 years ago in Iowa with my Great Grandma. I grow a much more varied pallette of flowers than my Great Grandma, Grandmother or any of my aged garden teachers over the years. Many of these iris,daylilies,lilies & other perennials have a difficulty adjusting to our hot, humid summers, our bitterly cold winters or our wet spring/falls. They are bred in much less varied climates . I do not baby them. I give them time & space to thrive. If they don't make it, I'll find another spot that likes my garden better!

This spring will bring what it brings. Anything is better than this cold & dead landscape.

Wow! It sure is winter where you are! The scene can be seen as beautiful of barren, depending on your viewpoint. I suspect your spring will be glorious. I can surely understand, though, why you wonder if you will ever see spring again -- given the picture you showed.

Yet I feel sure spring will come again -- in fact, more like the springs you have known in the past. Hang in there -- which is what I keep telling myself. We don't have as much snow as we do, but spring seems far away here as well.

Last year I was worried about the frost ruining my iris bloom so i went out there with styrofoam cups and put them over ever bud i could. It seemed to work. No loss from frost but i really dont know if that area got hit bad or not. The year before i lost a lot of bloom.

i think last year we all got hit with a pretty bad frost, I lost some stuff that had been pretty tough. I have had a few iris try to shoot up too soon this year, but nothing as bad as last year

A light freeze is usually no problem in my beds. The warm late March weather had encouraged vigorous growth. The hard unrelenting freeze damaged buds on stocks that had not even formed yet. Damaged the scapes on many of my earlier dayliles too that were only up a few inches. Such is life.

Hard winters usually bring a gorgeous if late spring. I hope I have something blooming for our May2&3 Iowa Round Up. It's not the snow that worries me--it's the 2 inches of ice under it all thay could be smothering it all. I won't know how much loss i will have in the garden until all the snow goes and the ground thaws. We are 40 degrees under normal for March so far....

Ice is the worst problem. When the snow clears the ice we usually try to break it up. In 2001 we had 4 1/2" of ice over a section of bed and broke it up with a mason's hammer. The plants, medians and TB Before the Storm came through.

The sun is doing some work here and 50+ temps. Give us a few days--I think I saw a glimpse of GRASS in my backyard! Be still my heart!

Has anyone in the Houston area been successful in planting iris and if so, which specific ones? Have heard Louisiana iris might be a good selection. But, perhaps it is just too moist in our area. Thank you.