Irises of Shadowood - part trois

SDBs are slowing down, but I still have a bunch of their pics to post. IBs and MTBs are starting.

Maiden bloom.

IB 'Furioso'

Maiden bloom

MTB 'Easy'

SDB 'Court Magician'

IB 'Blessed Again'

MTB 'Apricot Drops'

Maiden bloom. This very handsome fellow grew out of class, towering over all of the other IBs around him. Large-flowered, too.

IB 'Captain Indigo'

I always love her eyelashes.

IB 'Clara Garland'

Maiden bloom. Fairly large-flowered for an MTB, but certainly attractive.

MTB 'Chartres'

Gorgeous, vivid color on this maiden, but the stalk leaned over after a day of rain.

IB 'Apache Warrior'

SDB 'Golden Fair'

Beautiful!! I really love the Furioso. Keep up the good work & keep posting your Iris.

Beautiful irises Laurie. I don't know if I am brave enough yet to order more irises this year after my borer battle last year, even though I am now commited to using merit...I'm scared to put so much time and hope and energy into them and then have a devastating loss...but I guess this is the story of life, isn't it? And one learns to try again, and again...
Sharon

Oh, Sharon, if I let a few losses stop me, I'd have given up on irises years ago. Heck, I lost more than 200 iris cvs just last year when the weather patterns hit them with one major stressor after another.

Laurie

Do the borers bother the medians as much, Laurie? I have been lucky enough not to have them yet, but I do have some leaf spot on the tall bearded, but very little on the medians.

Your rises are just beautiful.

Polly, I don't remember having much trouble with borers in medians, though that may be because I really haven't had any borer problem since I started growing significant numbers of medians. My bad borer problem was back when I was just starting out with TBs. I started using Merit as soon as I heard about it, and I haven't had a problem with borers since.

It makes sense, though, that given a choice, borers will opt for the bigger, fleshier TB rzs.

Laurie

More pretty irises to share with you ...

One of my favorite littleuns.

SDB 'Ruby Eruption'

Maiden bloom.

SDB 'Seafire'

SDB 'Rare Penny'

This one's identity is uncertain. I received it as a bonus from a seller who had it misnamed, BUT the name was fairly close to a registered cultivar, Mary White. So when it bloomed, I sent pics to Mary White's hybridizer, Lloyd Zurbrigg (now sadly deceased). Lloyd said that the pics and my description matched MW in all respects EXCEPT beard color, which was registered as apricot. Now the pics I sent Lloyd might not have accurately displayed the beard color of the living flower, or perhaps my soil chemistry or climate altered the color somewhat. Or maybe I just don't know exactly what color "apricot" is (or what Lloyd's interpretation of apricot was). So this plant may or may not be Mary White. Whoever she is, she's very tall and very stately, not to mention tough as nails and a reliable bloomer no matter how horrible the climate is in any given year.

TB 'Mary White' (maybe)

A painfully slow increaser, but you just can't beat the color!

SDB 'Pele'

Definitely in the running for my favorite new bloomer this year. I LOVE the blended blues and browns in this baby!

SDB 'Seadancer'

Terrific contrast of stark white and dark purple in this maiden bloomer. A real eye catcher from across the garden.

IB 'Rare Edition'

SDB 'Sea Monster'

SDB 'Ruby Wings'

IB 'Hi'

Sigh..... Iris season has long gone here, but I can live it again thu yours. Your photos are magnificent! I especially liked Apache Warrior, (what a color!) Mary White, Sea Monster, and Hi. Thanks for sharing. We're having 100 degree plus so I'm enjoying visiting on Dave's Garden. Was outside a while ago and I think I could get a sunburn in the shade! Was 98 on the carport in the shade all day....... Whew... Time for some more iced tea.

Laurie,
Maybe the unknown iris 'Mary White' is Blanc de Chine? That cultivar is a TB, reliable bloomer with a yellow beard and a very light greenish tint to the veins in the falls on close inspection. Unfortunately, I don't have the registered description. A related question - do you know if is there a good website that lists the registered descriptions?

Your irises are beautiful - thanks for posting them!

Ann

Thank you, Ann. I'll look for a pic of Blanc de Chine. In the catalog of the seller who sent me this iris, he had it listed as Mabry White. Well, the IS no Mabry White registered with the AIS, but Mary White looked like a good guess. Unfortunately, there's still that beard color problem that prevented Lloyd from confirming its identity.

Blanc de Chine's registered description is as follows:

BLANC DE CHINE
(S. Moldovan, R. 1978) Sdlg. 71-7D. TB, 38" (97 cm), M
Ruffled white self with touch of blue at base; yellow and white beard. 68-66: (((Galilee x Celestial Blue) x Music Maker) x Seven Leagues) X Neptune's Pool. Moldovan 1978

and MW's is:

MARY WHITE
(Zurbrigg, R. 1959) Sdlg. 54-23-OB. TB, 36" (91 cm), M
White self, apricot beard. Pianissimo x unknown. Avonbank 1959

Unfortunately, my lovely lady is an early bloomer and taller than either of the above (in my garden where almost NOTHING ever manages to bloom up to registered height). So I'm afraid that her identity will remain a mystery.

As far as accessing AIS registration information online is concerned, YES, you can access it at the following link.

http://www.irisregister.com/

If you wish to use the searchable online database (which I highly recommend and use all the time), there is a modest annual access fee. If you don't want or need access to the database, you can download several of the older registration checklists for free from the same link (lower lefthand side of page).

Laurie

Thanks for the great information on the AIS database, I'll definitely start using that site. I hope you'll find a name for your beautiful iris. Growing irises gives us fun 'detective' work sometimes!

Ann

Laurie, your irises are beautiful. I particularly enjoy reading your comments about the flowers!

I meant to post more pics for you yesterday but got distracted with other things. I'll add a few extra this morning.

First up is a new bloomer that is more than a little bizarre, but I really like it. This one has wonderful fall colors and an intriguing striped pattern on the falls. Doggone thing is almost impossible to photograph well, though, because the falls are all narrow and twisty like feathers in the wind. Perhaps that's why it was named ...

SDB 'Quail'

A close-up of Quail shows the yellow ground color running down the sides of the falls that makes the flower glow.

IB 'Sherbet Lemon'

SDB 'Cat's Eye'

Beautiful soft color is complemented by vibrant beards on this lovely maiden bloomer.

SDB 'Penny'

Talk about VIBRANT BEARDS!!! Normally I don't get too excited about "just another purple", but there's nothing "just another" about this new bloomer! Not only do these neon beards grab attention from 100' away, but they sit atop the blackest falls I've ever seen on an iris. This flower is INTENSE!

IB 'Banshee'

On the other end of the visual scale is this lovely new pastel beauty. Three tiny jewels opened together on a perfectly spaced stalk.

MTB 'Please'

One of my favorite little cuties with the funny face.

SDB 'Serendipity Elf'

Another maiden bloomer, this one makes me hungry for chewy caramels.

SDB 'California Boy'

This one is sporting a big ole color break on one of his standards this year. Probably weather-related.

IB 'Prince of Burgundy'