Getting back on my horse...

Decided not to let last years borer war losses discourage me from the beautiful iris garden of my dreams...
Throwing caution to the wind I went right to Schreiner's Iris Garden (online) and ordered these irises:
About Town
Awesome Blossom
Chasing Rainbows
Chatter
Cherry Blossom Song
Chevalier De Malte
Copper Classic
Entangled
Impressionist
Ladyfriend
Lights Camera Action
New Leaf
Rock Star
Spinoff
Tangled Web
Total Recall

and 2 bonus plants:
Fine Wine
Midnight Treat

Oh I am so excited - can't wait to see them bloom!
Thanks, Laurie - you're encouragement was just what I needed ;)
Sharon

Way to go Sharon! Gardening can be so discouraging at times. But just wait 'till next year! I don't know how many times I've said that! I've thrown in the trowel many times only to pick it back up sooner or later. It gets in the blood...... Gardening, that is, not the trowel........ You'll be glad you did.

Congratulations, Sharon! Take it from one with LOTS of experience in this regard (both with horses and irises) - no matter how many times you get bucked off, it never diminishes the beauty of the animal. ;-)

Laurie

darn it all Laurie - I've hit the ground a few times myself - the second time I came up "talking blue French" - my instructor nodded, said," you've learned how to talk to horses" and shoved me back in the saddle -

Know I've prayed a few times over irises - don't think I've ever gone blue on 'em......

I fell off so regularly as a student rider that the other students started taking bets on how many minutes I'd manage to stay on before I hit the dirt at each lesson! The stable master had a rule that any student who fell off had to bring bubble gum for all of the other students at the next lesson. I think my folks took out stock in Double Bubble that year.

I don't pray over irises and I don't go blue on them. I just say goodbye and good riddance to the weaklings and then fill their spots with new iris contenders.

Laurie

good attitude!

Good for you Sharon! Borers and Rot did a job on a lot of mine the last 2 years too. This year I used Grubex and also built a new raised bed for the new ones. SDB all looked really good when I dug them up yesterday, but I've heard they have less problems with borers in general. With all the rain we've had, I know some of my tall ones have some rot. Just haven't had time to get to them. Next week or two I'll have to see how many of them I can save. I keep on ordering them anyway. The good thing is they aren't nearly as expensive as daylilies.

Susan

You can't blame borers for slacking off on SDBs. More chance of fun on the bigger plants, although we have found them in SDBs. So far little of their damage but we still have the larger plants to work on & inspect.

I am finding a few plants that have rotting brown central leaves, and when I look inside there are lots of tiny little worms. These are on plants that got merit this spring, and they don't look like borers. Has anyone else had this problem?

Is the orthochaeta fly in your area? Their larva are sometimes known as wire worms, They mainly bother the siberians, the beardless which we grow. They appear late in our season, so bothered the TBs here last yr. as the bloom season was later than usual.Also check for thrip which are sort of reddish in color.