Bearded Iris and roses

I love iris too. I had over 100 different ones in NSW, and I dug up bits here and there to bring with me.

They had to be scrubbed for hours with a toohbrush to ensure they were soil free and all foliage had to be cut right back to the rhizome, to satisfy quarantine regulations. they were all inspected.

In spite of this harsh treatment, plus being dug up at the wrong time of the year, they are growing foliage happily now. Trouble is, I won't know what's there until they flower!

I used to just scrape mulch and soil off mine, to let the sun get to their backs, but then I had one patch in the shade of a big spruce tree, with no sun on their base at all, and they still flowered.

Mine mostly came from an iris farm in NSW called "Granite Grove".

If they grow successfully, I'll be happy to swap too, Simon and Ripley.

Mine are slow this year, I have 2 of the common white ones out ATM

Oh Abbi, fancy having to leave so many behind, what a shame. What a chore too -getting the ones ready that you did bring with you.

They are tough old things arent they! People dont like them because they 'only' flower from oct - nov and yet people go crazy for camellis and rhodos I dont get it. and the more varieties you have (space permitting) the longer you can make the iris season. I dont mind plants that only flower once a year, makes the time they are out that much more special, thats why I love the old variety roses, the once bloomers.

There are a lot of beardies that repeat flower now Rip. 'Double Shot', the one I photographed and posted here, is a repeat flowering beardie. That photo was taken at the end of Autumn.

Yeah I noticed alot of descriptions mentioning repeat blooms. Ive been looking at this website http://www.yarrabeeiris.com.au They seem to have a great selection and extra info for hybridising like Impressive Irises. I received an email from the lady saying that they only send two shipments to tassie, 1 in January and 1 at the end of March as they have to do a 4hr round trip to get them fumigated. She also said if I get my order in before the end of oct and pay a 20% deposit it will guarantee my order for then. So now i have time to save and go thru them all and pick out what I want.

If anyone wants to join orders to save on the postage ($25) we could work something out.

Maybe you could start a separate section for Irises on the forum Simon. There seems to be a fair bit of interest in them. Although if you add Irises where do you stop..

I have just finished my iris order for this year... bought these ones over the last few days... pretty excited about these actually because the order includes some dwarf ones... I've never tried them before and they look awesome. There's only one more iris I'd like this year; 'McKellar Grove'. It's an intense orange that is recommended as a fertile breeder as both a pollen parent and seed parent.

These are the new ones:

Tall, Median, and Intermediate Beardies:

'Cycles'
'Concertina'
'Eagle Flight'
'Candy Rock'
'Corps de Ballet'
'Chico Maid'
'Faux Pas'
'Glitzy'
'Beyond'
'Gold Kist'
'Devil May Care'
'Mara'
'April Fog'

Dwarf Beardies (20-30cm):

'Cats Eye'
'Face Paint'
'Artful'
'Canadian Kisses'
'Dawn Hush'
'Posing'

I was thinking of that Rip... I think maybe a new forum might be in order... if someone else would like to make it and host it I can show them how

Until then there is always: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/iris/

I like the look of these ones Rip and Val: Crowned Heads, Pink Bubbles, I Feel Good, High Roller, Epicentre, and Fancy Dress. Some real beauties in this list.

Thanks for the website for the Iries, Simon. I spent most of my computer time last night looking at them. My favorites are the pinks and Lavenders, but others too. Also I love Japanese Irises, and they had a few. I grew a couple once and they were great to grow.
Thats a lovely list of Iries you have picked out. I am still paying for roses at the moment, but I will pick a few that I think are the prettiest to buy soon. I will try to anyway. There is a lady on the other side of Mudgee that sells Iries, when I have gone there I always go too late after she has sold most of them. She is a collector of them and has photos of all of them in photo albums. This year I will go early. Thanks for reminding me. They use to be $5. each. I have about 10 or more varieties here.

I had a look at Impressive Irises ebay shop when you recommended it Simon and bought "Pass The Wine", "Silverado", "Corps de Ballet", and my fav "Shy Glance" This is a pic from the catalogue

'Silverado' has been recommended as an excellent breeder Rip. I think Iris breeding is going to take more patience than rose breeding. It takes 2-3 years before the first flowers appear. Wouldn't be a problem once you had rotations going but the first few years would mean a lot of seedlings would need to be kept on just to see flowers... pretty exciting though when the first flower appears I reckon though... it was exciting enough when 'Double Shot' flowered for the first time! I think it could be almost as addictive as rose breeding... which reminds me... I need to go and check my seedlings and see which ones are up now and throw some water and weak thrive around Ciao

Mmmm, I do like Double Shot and Corps de Ballet! BUT I really have no room for more, lots of mine are still in smallish pots and will have to go elsewhere before long. One I have always fancied is Autumn Circus, or Circus Circus. I love the veins and stitching on them.
Scuse me while I try a little experiment-
No - didn't work. I was trying to "Drag and Drop" a picture of an iris from my desktop to here but it didn't want to know. I spent a happy hour or so dragging photos from the online iris sites on to a document I had made with a list of the irises I've got. I'll hope for blooms and post pics then!

I did name all mine but you know how it is

I know just how it is, Thee.

I carefully wrote out labels on plastic,stuck them in the ground beside each iris....................and a puppy we had at the time, had a great afternoon ripping them all out and mixing them up.

There are so many bearded iris that many similar colours have different names. Here's a few of mine ( 2008 season), but none have any of the names so far posted.