SDB Iris are looking good this year!

Mainer, I love the raised bed design. What a cool idea!

very nice looking garden

Thanks, I know this is not a daylily thread but the view changes drastically when daylily season approaches.

Looks as if your garden is an ever changing scene. Very nice.

Mainer, whatever that DL is in the photo, I NEED one - I've been searching for one very very similar for four years without success. Do you know name?

Kwanso or Flora Plena. One or the other but I am not knowing the difference except someone said one is more evenly layered than the other. Not fertile and needs to be tamed so I keep a small bit in the triangle part of my maltese cross. I have extra if you really want some. Mine came from Gurney's back in the 1970's and some of it came from an old one room schoolhouse down the corner from where I live. The Schoolhouse got torn down and the daylilies were left wild until the road crew widened the road and took most of them to sell. I divide mine about every three years to keep it the size I want. Soon I hope someone knowing about daylilies will inspect mine and tell me which one I have.

Julianna

Bluebeard's Ghost

Blue Beard's Ghost is pretty. Someone was trying to find that one at our sale last year. I had never seen it before, but now that I have, I'm going to watch for it also!

You'll have to beat me to it though!

It's a 2006 intro from Mid America, so I'm not sure if it would be at any iris sales yet. I got it last year as a bonus, and I'm sure glad I did.

I just love the flower form on some of the Mid America intro's.

I suspect it will be some time before appearing at sales--too new. Missed our bloom on it last yr. as we were away.

We had a lot of newer introductions in the local gardens for the convention last year. Some were sent back to the hybridizers (as requested) but many were donated to the club. Some of those were available at the sale and that could be why the one guy was looking for it.

That would be a sale to go to!

Hybridizers usually want seedlings returned & stock that they have a short fall. Otherwise it is an advantage to have the seen. So when they increase the following sale is a good place to have newer plants. I have been marking "sale" plants as we weed our beds for ISM this summer (Iris society of Mass).

I have some yellow iris that look very similar to Va. native blue flags. They bloom at the same time too. Can anyone tell me what they are?

Suspect I.peudacorus--a native of Europe.

beeeeeautiful!

y'all that are better on SDBs - tried my first ones this year. Hoping for advice -

They survived drought and my care. But I got maybe half of one bloom. Thought they were goners, but looked again yesterday, and they have increased. Have
Wizards Return
Wish Upon a
Folk Art
Fancy Sparkler

would the mild winter we've just had have been the cause - or are they just not getting enough sun to bloom?

The mild winter and cold very wet spring we've just had has sent an epidemic of leaf spot, aphids and thrips through my beds, too. I spray, and another rain just washes it off. But so far, haven't seen any of the above on the SDBs!

bonjon,

SDBs generally perform best in areas where they receive significant winter freeze. If you had a particularly mild winter, they may not have experiences as much freeze as they want in order to produce flowers. Also, it's not at all uncommon for irises to take a year or two (or sometimes longer) to settle into a new garden before resuming their bloom cycle. If you planted them just last summer, they may not be well enough established yet to bloom.

Laurie

Thanks Laurie. When I visited Snowpeak, I noticed all of Dee's. She said she got enough freeze there, thought if she could grow them I'd try them, as I'm a higher zone rating.

But we did have a particularly mild winter -and a darn poor spring for irises: high winds and rain have downed a good 60% of my stalks.

bonjon, is there a reason you prefer SDBs? By the way, the irises you sent me are doing fine.

did they bloom well woodspirit?

I don't prefer SDBs - I'm trying them for the first time, planted 4 - and I meant to say irisloverdee's zone is higher than mine, not the other way around.

No, but I didn't expect them to the first year they were transplanted. They will be fine next year.
I am interested in the SDB because of all the wind that whips around the mountains. It's an odd phenomenon, but when the wind is blocked by tall structures, it funnels itself around the building causing micro-bursts.
When I was a kid, I was trapped inside the Empire State Building because no one could get the doors open. The wind pressing on that side of the building was later measured at 120 m.p.h.
While I don't experience anything like that, I do see 60 m.p.h. regularly, which is pretty hard on TBs

yes it is - and when they send up stalks, you'll probably want to stake them because of the wind.

SDBs and other medians have become increasingly popular because of the wind factor in so many places. We had the freak thunderstorm/microbursts that have increased in frequency here a week before my iris show that downed over 50% of my stalks I might have taken, remember? As more modern breeding increases the number of buds per stalk, the wind blowing down heavy stalks has become an issue, too.

If I had known that, I'd probably have recommended medians.

No thread for MTBs and I don't want to start one, if I will be the only one posting, so may I put MTB Smash here?

Absolutely! And it's lovely.

pollyk-
love that one!
...not finding much on that one on the web. Do you remember where you got it?
-T

wow Polly - that one just lights up, doesn't it?!

Smash is a tet. so will have a larger flower than the diploid MTBs. The flowers of the Craigs irises are larger in other places than their gardens in OR. We mainly grow the diploid MTBs which are easier kept in the 3" x3" standard size. New england dip. hybridizer S. Markham now intros her plants through Aitkens.

I found a source online for 'smash'. Thanks.
:0)

I think Shadowood has it, I purchased it from Winterberry Gardens, but they are not listing it this year.

Thank you polly, that is who I found it from today. Actually two listings, but shadowood is who I'll buy from

Thanks for the introduction. I love gorgeous iris, especially when they are also both rebloomers and fragrant!

Cherry Curls from The Willotts. Maiden Bloom in my garden.

Cherry Curls - pretty!

Polly - do the MTB's need sustained cold to bloom?

Sorry, I'm new at them. I understand they need some cold time, but Laurie can better answer your question. This is only my second year growing them.

Ask me any question about the beardless, but the bearded are still a mystery to me, LOL.

I don't know exactly how much cold MTBs require in order to bloom, but I do know that a gal in NC sent me all of her MTBs because they wouldn't bloom in her climate. I suspect that they have at least the same chill requirements as many SDBs. Perhaps even as much as the MDBs.

Laurie

Thanks ladies! I love my TB's, they love it here, and there are so many of them I want to buy, so I will put my dollars there!

well, I saw only one slightly deformed bloom on one of my SDBs this year, my first year for them, and I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that they will do better once established. Just bought a "Karen Jones" on auction this weekend at the region 4 spring conference, a 2008 intro from Spoons.

MTBs also have cold requirements? DARN. Hope they will grow here, too. I'm supposed to be 7a, but it's probably going to be chanaged to 7b as it's been a while since we've been below 17 degrees.

MTBs can do well in different climates depending on the parents.

Dancing Lilacs, MTB.

This must have some pallida heritage, as it has the exact same kool aid smell.