New to Irises...

I'm new to growing irises. I planted a couple of types last year (I. pallida and bearded 'Immortality') and hope to have my first blooms this year. I like plants that aren't overly fussy. So, please share from your experiences and tell me the easiest irises to grow? The most fragrant? The best rebloomers? And please share pictures of your beautiful irises!

Denise

Hello Denise.

Welcome to the Iris Forum and to growing irises! Once you see those beauties blooming in your garden, I suspect you'll be hooked forever. They truly are magnificent flowers, which is what keeps us irisholics adding more and more of them to our gardens. They come in a dizzying array of colors, patterns, heights, forms, and cultural requirements - irises for every climate, garden setting, and set of growing conditions!

That said, all irises are definitely NOT created equal, and all irises will NOT thrive in all situations or grow and perform the same in all gardens. My personal long-term goal has been to establish an iris collection that can handle my very severe climate and "relaxed" gardening style without coddling. In other words, I grow the toughest of the tough, and the weaklings are welcome to die.

Since you are new to irises and are wanting plants that are as carefree as possible for your specific growing conditions, I recommend you contact your nearest iris club and ask them for suggestions. They will know which irises do well in your area, which rebloomers are most likely to rebloom there, and they probably hold a rhizome sale each year from which you can purchase irises acclimated to your climate and successfully grown in your area. You can find contact info for your nearest iris clubs here:

http://www.irises.org/ais606.htm

As far as your current irises are concerned, Immortality is an extremely popular and widely grown rebloomer, but it does have a habit in some areas of being a very slow starter. By that I mean that it sometimes takes years to settle into a new garden before it will start blooming. You may need to be patient with that one. The fact is, though, that many irises will take a year (or more) off from blooming after being planted, so you may not see any bloom from either of your irises this spring. Then again, you might. Irises can be as unpredictable as they are beautiful.

Iris pallida is perhaps the most widely grown iris species and is very tough, but it doesn't necessarily offer the most beautiful iris flowers available today.

If you are looking for strong, delicious fragrance, you might want to add English Cottage and Sugar Blues to your new iris collection. They both have aromas to die for!

Happy irising,

Laurie

I. pallida .
is a old spieces , i will keep in my garden foever for it charm and smell of grape pop

picture of your I. pallida .




.

Good news! After a morning spring shower, I checked out my garden beds and 'Immortality' has buds emerging! Wahoo! And if I checked I. pallida correctly, it might give me a few blooms, too! I planted three of each last year. I bought them at Lowes on sale. 'Immorality' was rather large and has almost doubled in size from how it appeared last year. How often do you need to divide it? I. pallida was about half the size when purchased and is slightly larger this year so far. I was expecting it to take longer to set in. Well, I'm good & excited now!

Congratulations on your impending bloom! How exciting!!!

Different irises are likely to demonstrate different rates of growth, so there is no hard and set rule about how often clumps need to be divided. Generally speaking, taller bearded irises need to be divided every 3-4 yrs, but extra vigorous varieties or those that were closely planted to begin with may need to be divided every year or two. Any iris that shows a diminishment of bloom, looks overcrowded, or has overgrown its planting space should be divided.

A word of caution about retail store irises - they are often mislabeled. There is, of course, a possibilitiy that what you purchased really will turn out to be Immortality and pallida, but there is an equal or greater chance that they will not. Retail stores are notorious that way, unfortunately. In any event, it sounds like you're going to be enjoying iris bloom in your garden, and that's always a good thing!!!

Laurie

When I do have blooms, I'll take some pictures and perhaps you can let me know if I have what I think I have or something different LOL. I'm just excited something is going to bloom because I wasn't sure if they would this year. Any suggestions on the most fragrant rebloomers you've come across?

The two fragrant irises I mentioned in my earlier post on this thread are both rebloomers. You need to understand, however, that no rebloomer is ever guaranteed to rebloom in any garden. Most rebloomers only rebloom in warmer climates with the longest growing seasons. Even those rebloomers that have been reported to rebloom in shorter season climates are subject to inconsistent performance based on a number of variables: weather patterns, soil fertility, water availability, available direct sunlight, rate of growth of the plant itself, etc., etc., etc. That's why I recommended you contact your local iris group. They are the folks who can tell you which cultivars tend to be the most reliable rebloomers in your area.


Laurie

Thanks, Laurie! I will check the iris group you mentioned. The nearest one is over 60 mi. from here but they can probably give me some useful info. Where did you purchase the 2 irises you mentioned earlier?

I bought them from Sutton's about 8 yrs ago. They are still widely grown and sold through a number of growers, though.

OK...I have a bloom to show on Immortality (?). Let me know if this looks correct to you. The buds on the other plants look similar to this one. The flowers are not pure white. They have some lilac (to my eye) coloring. They smell fantastic!

And another...

Here's a bud getting ready to open...

Another...

And one more...Please let me know if you think I did indeed buy 'Immortality' from Lowes :~)

It's pretty windy today as a storm is getting ready to blow in. I tried to get the clearest pictures I could. So, what's the best way to keep TB iris as cut flowers?

That actually looks more like English Cottage than Immortality to my eye, though there's a pretty high probability that it's neither. Both are scented, but EC is much moreso than Imm. EC has the second strongest fragrance of any iris I know. It's absolutely delicious!

If you're going to cut the stalk and bring it inside, give the stem a fresh bevel cut immediately before you put it in the vase, and remove any leaves that will touch the water. Wipe off the stem daily with a wet sponge and change the vase water. Give the stem a new bevel cut every 2-3 days. Remove spent blooms as they fade.

Laurie

I think you do have Immortality. Here is a picture that I took last year from my Immortality.

Laurie,

I think the irises I have smell great but I really don't have anything to compare them to LOL. I haven't been able to find someplace that sells English Cottage. If you know of where I can get it, please let me know. I guess I'll have to buy Immortality from someplace that specializes in irises so I can compare :~)

Has anyone bought irises from Iris Sisters Farm? I'm thinking about ordering some from them...let me know.

I have purchased from Iris Sisters and they are wonderful. And the owner is a DG member, too.

I see laurief has both Immortality and English Cottage listed as available on her website.

http://lfrazer.com/iris/tb_e-k.html



That does not look like my Immortality.

Wow! Thanks Polly, for letting me know about Laurie's site! If she mentioned it, I missed it...I'm definitely going to check it out before I order from anywhere else! I also like that she's a fellow artist :~)

Denise

A fellow artist???? Good grief, I can't even draw a decent stick figure! LOL!

Laurie

Hi lauief, my irises are blooming I should get alot of blooms this year I see buds on alot of them!!!!! ...........sharon

I think anyone who can bring joy to others by creating beauty, whether by something they make or by a beautiful garden they helped bring to being, is an artist :~) The 'Immortality' (?) I have does look a lot like 'English Cottage' on Laurie's site. But just to be safe (LOL), I think I'll be getting some more irises!

Sharon, I am so excited for you! I hope your irises dazzle you with beauty this year!

Denise, thank you for adopting me into the ranks of artistry, but I'm afraid credit for the beauty of my irises belongs to a far greater power than my own. :-)

Polly, you're a pal. ;-)

Laurie

Welcome to the wonderful world of iris addicts Denise. It seems the more you grow, the more you want to grow. Irises are very forgiving plants and will do well for you if given some easy to achieve growing conditions.

You may want to try growing some reblooming irises. I am also in zone 6 and I've had very good success with growing and having my reblooming irises rebloom. Do your homework and look for reblooming irises that are reliable rebloomers in zones 5 and below. That way, if your weather is bit colder and frost hits your area earlier, you still have a chance of having good rebloom. I just started out with a few rebloomers and am now adding more a little at a time. My first purchases were Immortality, Clarence, Plum Wine, Low Ho Silver, and Baby Blessed. After getting established, all of these plants have been reliable rebloomers in my zone 6 garden. I also have Rosalie Figge, but she was a bit harder to get established. She also did not rebloom for the first several years I had her. Some years the rebloom flowers came so late that the frost got them. But last summer must have been a magic year, and all of my rebloomers rebloomed starting the first week of September and they bloomed into October. It was wondeful to have all that color at that time of year.

There is loads of info on reblooming irises at this website:
http://www.rebloomingiris.com/index.htm
I enjoy going there to study their lists of irises that rebloom. Culture info is also there to read.

I also spend a lot of time at Laurie's site. There is a wealth of information there too as well as lots of wonderful pictures.

Good luck growing your irises!

Linda

This message was edited May 7, 2008 9:10 PM

Thank you everyone, for all the info and advice! I can say with confidence that irises will be in my garden from this year forward :~) They've joined my list of "gotta have" plants...along with lilies, peonies, daylilies, hardy geraniums, dianthus, LOL.

Thanks, Laurie, but honestly, if I hadn't gotten such great irises from you, I sure wouldn't be recommending you.

Laurie got me started on the medians, and it has turned into an addiction. I especially liked knowing the ones I got from Shadowood were super hardy, as it gets cold here, and I have not lost one of the ones I got from here, unlike some other sources.

Well I must admit, my iris rhizomes might be the size of raisins, but they're mighty tough little raisins. LOL!

Laurie

haven't ever tried any of Laurie's flowers, sorry to say, but zanesville isn't all that far away (in iris mileage LOL!) from Winterberry Gardens, over in Cross Junction VA. [written by someone that would travel 1000s of miles to see irises!]

Dr. Spoon is fairly famous for hybridizing some wonderful reblooming iris. Their peak bloom should be in just another week or two. might be worth a weekend jaunt for you to see a hybridizer's garden. I think he has several of Zurbrigg's (English Cottage) in his breeding lines and on display. They don't do on-line sales, but you can google Winterberry Gardens and get a catalogue. Their prices are good, too.

I have been well pleased with my orders from Iris sisters....

Has anyone bought from Iris4U.com? They seem to have a great selection at great prices.....but I would like to hear from a customer as to size and quality

OH MY GOD!!!! Came home and dogs ran over half my irises and lilies because neighbor s dads dog over I'm in tearsI ,I've waited two years and now half are stomped in the ground of course sig other made the mistake of saying who care well its going to cost Him!!!!!!!!!!................Sharon

oooooooooo I am so sorry. I think he'd have dog for dinner

I know the feeling........bought most of mine when he had to have a new top of the line golf cart ....... mega retirement cash, without discussion

It's not the dogs fault I blame him for not keeping them out of it but its to late now . I'm going to buy gaits and he WILL pay This is going to set him back a few Hundred dollars!!! ... He thinks I'm nuts to be so upset but to me it really therapy and comforting, ive waited all year for this and its devestating , so off to menards i go !!! .............Sharon
I

now, Sharon, this cloud has a silver lining, don't ya know.

DH did something that made me also liable for a fortune in penalties - he didn't mean to, it was carelessness.

So he helped buy (his credit card) and dig holes for many hundreds of dollars of irises to make it up to me, and now they are all in bloom.......I'm kinda glad he did that....

but I know EXACTLY how you feel. a freak thunderstorm came through Monday 4/28 before an iris show Saturday 5/3. all those new irises, 50% were flattened to the ground, another 20% were ripped, and I was planning to enter them and/or hybridize with them.

Now I feel bad about complaining!!!!! But i'm still going to get the gait and fences so the little beasties won't get to the flowers!!!! I don't have hundreds of iris maybe fifty but still!! I'll be o.k. and I'm sure they will come back for next season but it was the first time they going to bloom so i have wait another year and also the lilies l still will have many the will bloom I hope...........Sharon

Sharon, calm yourself girl. We have to expect these setbacks when we're infected with 'Iris
virius'. We have to do battle with all sorts of insects and various varmits (sig. others) and critters that seem to have one goal in life, " To seek out and distroy any and most iris blossoms and plants we can find". And then, there is the weather....... freezing cold wind, hail, heavy springime SNOW, hot, dry winds, monsoon rains....... Same goal as the others.... Did I mention soil? Clay, rocks, caliche, no organic matter, etc., etc. AND, trying to deal with persons that just haven't a clue as to why we are so upset over a couple of ruined flowers!!
So, why do we subject ourselves to such torture? Because we love these flowers so. We get angry, rant and rave, shed a few tears, threaten all kinds of havoc on the perpetraters (sp?), then gather our tools and repair the damage and say "Next year will be fine. Next year, just wait and see." Hang in there.

Perhaps some of the stalks can be staked. If they are broken off, try & put them in the ground with a stake, that's what barry blyth often does to ripen seed pods. Maybe it will work with flowers. Not the same as growing them I know. Ask neighbor how it would like it if someone clipped the dog's coat, just when he wanted to show them off. Property should not be destroyed and made useless for a season.

Oh, Sharon, I'm soooo sorry that happened to you. I KNOW how much you were looking forward to them. It's so heartbreaking when something that you've been waiting so long for is wiped out in a careless minute. All I can say is try to look on the bright side. With the new fence and gate you'll get out of this tragedy, you won't have to worry about this sort of damage to your irises again.

And remember, all is not lost. Half of those irises are still going to give you joy and beauty this year. The others will be brand new faces to surprise and delight you next year. And now that the others won't have to put any more energy into producing blooms, they can concentrate their efforts on increasing the sizes of their clumps so that you'll have EVEN MORE FLOWERS next year!

Take heart, Sharon, and enjoy the irises that will still bloom this spring!

Laurie

O.k. I'm over it I think ,thanks for letting me rant!! And for the encouragment and letting me know theres a bright side I needed that............. Thank you big hugs ,sharon