My irises have started

Mainer, I am glad I am not the only one with unfinished projects going on. Taz, is right a garden is never truly done.

I don't post many landscapes either :) but I have some super plants. I need a landscape designer to pull things together. I have a bad habit of just buying and planting.
Teresa

Sable Night is gorgeous! What a beautiful collection you have.

~Margie

Mainer....How the heck did you come up with zone 3?? You a zone5/6
Zone 3 is reserved for Canada and Alaska these days!! LOL

http://www.backyardgardener.com/zone/

Nice Iris by the way..which is what got me wondering how you could be 2 zones colder than me but have Iris's blooming BEFORE me!

Mainer, how old does an Iris have to be to be an historic? How makes the decision to call it an historic. Changing Times is beautiful.

Thanks,
Susan

Gorgeous pix. I want them all! Love that maltese cross bed. What a neat idea.

"historic" irises are 30 yrs old. That was fine when HIPS started. They are trying to figure out a designation for the newer "historics" Like everything else in gardening-a work in progress.

Hi, Well as it stands for the moment, HIPS voted to call an iris historic thirty years from introduction, not registration date. That is being disputed at times for we get a SDLG or a famous iris used in breeding for years not formally introduced or registered needing rescue.

Then HIPS breaks it's own rule and realizes that the iris has been around for years, has a name, a recorded past but no known hybridzer or other problems and they decide the rule is silly in this case and register the iris. Minnesota Mixed Up Kid or Drady are examples where the registration says 1990's or something recent yet people had them for over thirty years.

The general rule is thirty years from introduction but there are exceptions. Anything introduced in 1978 is now an historic. Anything registered in 1978 might not be considered an historic yet except for the ones being saved that definately were proven to be important in the past in breeding programs or widely distributed but for some reason never got registered. Those may be grown by HIPS members and when enough is saved, may be recently registered with AIS and still be considered an historic. That job usually falls to the HIPS ID Chairperson to determine which need registering and which do not. The HIPS ID Chairperson works closely with Superstition Iris Gardens so you can pretty much know that if they sell it, it is the proper variety.

Oklahoma Bandit is disputed. Reg thirty years ago but introduced in 1980 is not an historic. This is a grey area I do not get for I feel like others if they were registered thirty years ago they should be considered historics.

Hope that was not confusing you even more.

Now zone 3 is because I am one mile from the Androscoggin River, seven miles from the ocean and on a very high hill, the top of it in fact. Flat maps to judge zones is good in some cases but not if you are in mountainous areas. Send me something in Oct and the ground is usually frozen. I get frosts starting Sept 1st. One mile down the hill they get a whole month longer to grow things on each end of the growing season. I have to use Reemay or Garden Quilt to have tomatos during Sept. I get almost full grown starts because June 18th we can still have frost.

Usuall I can grow zone 5 and 4 stuff but in a cold or snowless winter it dies.

Now my irises are cheating. I placed them in an Eastern bank sheltered by the house and the sun reaches them most of the day. Even so we had a very early Spring that we do not normally have here. I expected more iris not to make it but we had no real wet rainy, cold month long days. We had 4ft of snow then seventy and eighty degree temps melting it in one week. What was usually a week for tulips and daffys bloom time was a matter of days.

I proved arilbreds could survive a winter with deep snow and a mild spring with thrty two degree nights with no frost heaving but I have not proved that they will survive a bad winter with no snow and a very wet, frosty heaving spring.

Now the iris in the maltese cross are a full zone colder than the Appletree garden and are on proper schedule. The SDB's are blooming and the IB's are starting. I do not have many TB's in it yet for most that were around for many years died the winter of 2003 when no snow but plenty of sleet killed most of my irises and plants zone 5 or 4.

Hollandica Tiger Eye I tried, got as a bonus in the Spring of 2005. They bloomed and never came up again. They are in the same place I planted the arilbreds. I am adding more sand to the clay soil this summer when I am allowed to garden again. I am buying more arilbreds but am fully knowing they might not make it.

Only Turkish Topaz has lived in the wooden raised bed and proven itself in surviving two winters and bloomed for the first time this year. It is making babies and I crossed it with SDB Serendipity Elf for the fun of it. It has made three pods and one is turning yellow now.

I think the dutch iris also like dry summers, which we don't have--any comments on that from people who grow them?

Here is the pod and the weeds.

well OK BANDIT is a historic here in Oklahoma .
bought at introduction
grew it till i moved two years ago.
Of course thirty years makes PAUL B. over 21
LOL

Mainer,
I am totally impressed with your iris collection historics, modern, and median. This thread is a feast for the eyes. Thank you for creating it for us.

Your welcome and that goes for the threads you all have created. It is so wonderful to not look at snow when your irises are going strong. Thank you.

Today Butter Pecan bloomed without the bird eating it.

Candy Queen modern SDB from the Maine Iris Society sale bloomed.

Darius is an oldie not sure what category it would be placed in but it is by Brown, 1873 and is 18" tall. Maiden bloom today and came from Superstition.

Faustine by Lemon, 1859 M, IB has a bloom today.

Now last year when the stalk only one mind you was in full bloom it looked like this.

Jesse's Song when all out today and this is only two rhizomes.

Juke Box Hero's maiden bloom.

Now I did show Lent A Williamson but it opened today in the L shaped border and by the lupine I had to share.

First L shaped border has paths in betweent the boxes. This was not raised for twenty years then in 2005 we decided the soil needed updating and that we needed to care for it more easily. We split up a huge border into this.

Now up close.

Madame Chereau by Lemon 1844 38" M and a diploid. Maiden bloom.

If you are not scare of my slippy slidey path that is not fixed yet I will show you what one rhizome of Prince Thou Art from Superstion did today.

Now Splashacata is special because I asked for a bonus an iris bred by each hybridizer of Superstition, they obliged. This one was sent by Rick Tasco and this is it's maiden bloom. Roger Duncan's will not bloom this year. No bloom stalk appearing yet.

Summer Olympics not wet. I do not know if it reblooms because anything that does in the fall is dead for good around here so we do not encourage rebloom in Maine. Sept 1st for me is frost time and further Down East is even a shorter bloom season. We feed in late July or very early Sept in a way not to encourage rebloom. Maine Iris Society is very much advising us not to encourage it or the plant will not survive. So far every plant that has rebloomed in my garden never bloomed again. Most vulnerable time for an iris is bloom time.

This message was edited Jun 7, 2008 2:00 AM

Last of all today the appletree border from the nib started as not identified then I identified and added more iris. Hole outside the fence now filled in with dirt and broken up boulders.

You have a lovely garden, Mainer. We all have spots that need work. Or at least I know I do! Mine is a work in progress.













Does your Summer O. rebloom?
I thought it was suppose to be a rebloomer. Maybe not. I like mine anyway.
Teresa

Mainer, your property is beautiful! I really love your irises and your raised beds are just stunning!

I am enjoying this so much ,
thank you for sharing your beuitful iris pictures

Spectacular show! Watching this thread unfold is a treat! ^_^

Thanks, now if we do not scare you too much, meet the gardening crew and family. We were putting in a garden for Grandfather's other half. My Grandmother died and so he found someone we love dearly and she had never had a chance to garden in her eighty three years. We fixed that. My Dad, me, my husband and my Mom. Yes Mom is a scamp and is about to water Dad in the photo. Grandfather took the photo.

Mainer, it sounds like your whole family enjoys the gardening thing and have fun while you're at it.

Precious!

I am pretty new to iris, well named varieties anyway. I had a couple of blooms today & just want to make sure my names are right.
Silverado

Beguine

And lastly, not blue actually crayon purple.
Art Deco? or Rare Treat?

Love your picture Julianna. You can see how much fun gardening together is!

Linda

Thanks, that sums up what we are like as a family pretty much, scampy and imaginative in different ways.

We had three days of rain and so I will have wet soggy photos to show.

I will start with Can Can Dancer by Lauer 1997 36" M TB.

Crowned Heads (Keppel,1997) 38", M,Tb DM 2004. Both photos are maiden blooms.

Dauntless (Connell, Reg, Intro 1929) 36",M, TB. DM 1929. Maiden bloom.

Fantastic Blue (C. Palmer 1975) 23" E, IB. Maiden bloom.