Bearded Iris 2007 to 2009

[Joakim B]

Being very far from on expert, I do myself more like Paul and do not even cut back the foliage when dividing and replanting. I have mostly older types of medium sized iris. They seem to cope since they do not get much wind where they have been replanted.
In Hungary the taller ones were cut down and still they bloomed well. I think many of these iris are very kind plants that have a wide growing condition to be grown well. To grow them excellently then there might be some issues but Lesley has proven that her regime works well so I think there are a lot of ways that work.
The pictures are like little suns shining when we a rainy morning here so keep them coming

Kind regards
Joakim

[angie]

Nice way of putting it Joakim ( little suns shining )  Hope your rain goes away soon.

Angie

[Arykana]

Hello Joakim!! nice to see you
http://picasaweb.google.com/merczelildiko1973 here is a photo album, I have got my irises from this collector /Joakim, if you are here in my, I can take you there /

[Lesley Cox]

Erika, Roger and I have about 2 acres (8000 sq metres approx) but I promise you, almost all of it at present is either long grass (we need a couple of sheep in, or a friendly horse) or planted by the previous owner in Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus nitens, as shelter trees. We are on the top of a high and windy hill (like love, as the song says  ) and need the shelter. So the "planted" garden is only about 1/4 of an acre at present but I'm working on that - quite hard in fact and planting out trees and others that have been confined in pots for far too long. This weekend is a public holiday (Labour Weekend), with a national holiday on Monday so today Roger has promised me some help to get the final part of my large soil pile moved and shaped. The weather is very nice fortunately. THEN, I can start to get all these little irises planted out. I don't ever plant them in beds alone, but mixed with other plants which like similar conditions.

[arillady]

Lesley I was wondering why you had so many irises in pots and not in the ground.

[Arykana]

So, I have started to collect coints to visit Leslie's "realm"
I have planted Santolina chamaecyparissus and sedums with the irises, looks quite interesting

[Joakim B]

Erika when going from the airport we almost ended up in Your part of Hungary until we were able to get back through village roads towards south west. We are too short time in Hungary now to be able to do any longer excursions but when the kids are bigger we hopefully can do longer drives, and a visit to the lovely iris garden is very high up on the list on things I would like to visit in Hungary. Hopefully my mother will take photos of the iris when they go to the house next time.
I also hope that the new ones planted in Portugal will flower and some of those are tall bearded ones. Hopefully I have some that are rebloming/remontant but that we will see later.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Lesley Cox]

Erika I think the irises must look very good with the Santolina. I plan to add some of that too. I have about 100 small plants (grown from cuttings) with which I planned to plant a low hedge but since it didn't happen when I intended, it may not happen at all now. A few will get used in other ways though and I think it would be a pleasant and attractive companion for bearded irises.

[Lesley Cox]

I took these yesterday and it's raining today so no new ones right out though lots of colour showing at bud tips.

The first is the first of the taller kinds, this one Apricot Drops, a miniature tall bearded, or table iris. Though not obvious from the picture, it is about 45cms high.


The rest are still dwarfs.

Jubal


Moondrops


Midnight Mist


Live Again

[Lesley Cox]

Troll, very similar to the taller Apricot Drops.


Jungle Gem


Jive


Buddha Song. This one is in the garden but wishing it were safely in a pot! Though competing with grass, penstemons and a large clump of running sorbus reducta, it still has over 30 stems. I promise I'll rescue it when it finishes flowering.

[Armin]

Lesley,
you have a great colorful collection of DBI's Thanks for showing.
Budda Song is worth to be rescued

[Joakim B]

Lesley nice to see the small ones and great that You talk about the height and what they also are called. Dwarfs and tall is known by most but maybe not all of the classes in between so when they appere naturally it would be good if You could keep using "all the names" they go by as You did with Apricot drops.  A great way to learn and also getting a feeling for when they bloom relating to the others. 
Maybe only part of the Budda song needs to be rescued since it seems to cope?
Then You have some back up plants if needed.

All the best and keep the gems coming.
It is lovely to have both plants in bloom pictures now and discussions about winter treatment in the same thread. It gives extra life to the tread in my mind.

All the best
Joakim

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you both for your support here. I have so many that they could get to be boring.

Only 3 today as we had a real drenching on Sunday and Monday and these look as if they've been through a washing machine.

Lilac Hill is an Intermediate which is between dwarfs and talls, obviously, but a sturdier stem and usually larger flower than the slim table irises which are of similar height as the intermediates, and also called miniature tall bearded. I don't like this term as it is contradictory, and table iris suggests something that is small and elegant enough for table decoration - as they are, though a fairly large table.

The colour of this is deeper and has a brown shading which I've not been able capture. I like it a lot.

Next, Sky Drops, a dwarf whose name is very appropriate today, the heavens having opened yesterday.


Finally Cherry Pop, a lovely rich red

[Paul T]

All great, Lesley.  I rather like Buddhas Song, and quite a few of the others you've posted.  I bought a pot of 'Fairy Footsteps' at our Hort Show this last weekend.  I think it was posted earlier in this topic, which reminded me how cute it was when I used to have it.    I bought another one as well, but can't recall it's name right now. 

[galahad]

Tall Bearded Iris Sultry Mood
Really difficult to photograph.  It is an intense plum with purple overlay.