Irises

I have 6 flower beds with bearded irises in them; 1 bed to either side of the porch to the house, one bed to either side of the steps to the driveway, a bed in front of the roses, and a bed in front of the azaleas and forsythias. I probably have around 100 individual iris plants spread amongst those 6 flower beds. Out of all those plants, I only have 4 colors; white (thanks Chris), yellow (thanks mom), purple (grandma), and what I call burgandy (mom and grandma).

Yesterday I went to Walmart to replace the watering nozzle that WS had run over with the mower (needless to say, the mower won that fight!). Let me explain, I never go thru Walmarts plant shop because they carry stuff that is just "normal". When I am looking for plants, I want something a little special, a little different than a mass retailer like Walmart carries. I get most of my plants thru local greenhouses or websites. Our local Agway is also good for getting some interesting stuff, and of course I swap stuff with neighbors (I can't wait for next year when the cream-colored foxgloves bloom that I got from our neighbor's).

This time, since I wasn't getting anything else from there, I went thru the garden section of Walmart. They had an interesting celosia that I picked up (I know, I just spent money for another couple of weeks of blooms before it dies) and a hardy mum (which I have never had a hardy mum actually stay hardy and survive thru the winter).

Then I had to pass a bin of bulbs and such on the way to the watering wands and I saw them.

I saw iris rhyzomes on sale:

1. Rasberry Blush
2. Blue Luster
3. Babbling Brook
4. Gay Parasol
5. Going My Way
6. Superstition

I have looked at these (or very similar) irises in catalogs and thought that they would be cool to have. But I could never justify the price (not really all that expensive, but jeese, irises are so common that the price should be lower).

For $2 for 2 rhyzomes, I couldn't pass them up!

Comments

[Cop Car]

Great! I bought some of the raspberry blush (and a few other kinds) last year, but the raspberry blush did not bloom. I'm going to set the rhyzomes a little higher in the dirt to see if that helps.

P.S. Do you mean to say that out of all of the rhyzomes that I sent you, none were purple and white? I need to "fix" that! There should also have been some two-toned purple, if I recall correctly--and, maybe, even some yellow and white. Maybe they died, maybe they'll bloom next year, or maybe I just didn't get any of them included. Sorry.

[Jackie]

I love irises too and have a bunch of them, most nabbed from friends and neighbors' overflow. I'll have to check Walmart. When we were planting the mound (an ongoing endeavor; I just put more stuff in yesterday), I found to my surprise that Walmart had upgraded its garden dept. and I got a few unusual perennials there, including yet another couple of weird and wonderful sedum: the groundcover of choice for that area. You'll have to post photos when your new varieties bloom next year!

[Cop Car]

Jackie--Do you know a good way of getting rid of sedum once it has taken hold? We have about 5 different kinds. Four of them are great, but one is running wild--it spread from a neighbor's bed, to start with and I, thinking it looked good, bought lots more. Now, I can't control it!!!

[bogie]

Cop Car - I was surprised that I didn't have more variety. However, they may have declined to bloom this year - I don't think any have died yet (I used to have several colors, but they all seemed to die over the years - except the purple ones). Guess I'll find out next year!

[bogie]

I way underestimated the number of irises I have - over 200 before I planted the new ones in the flowerbed at the corner of the driveway.

[Cop Car]

Well, the purple ones and the plane yellow ones are definitely the hardy ones, so it isn't surprising when a bed of a variety of colors eventually degenerates to those two colors. We'll hold out hope for next year.

It had seemed to me that you were, perhaps, underestimating your number of irises--just from knowing how many I sent you and from vague recollections of your postings on your plantings from other sources. I did not go back in your postings to check out the numbers (which would be too much like work.)

I raised a few of our rhyzomes an inch or so, yesterday. I want to take up a couple of beds for relocation, and it would be easy to lift the rhyzomes out of the beds, now, but it is 'way too muddy to dig the new beds. And it is raining as I input. Maybe I can, at least, get the lifting done this week, if not the planting.

[Susan]

I can't wait to see the pictures of them next year! What a deal!

[bogie]

Jackie and Susan - I will try to get photos up next year but don't hold your breath. I never remember to take pictures of my existing iris collection!

[Susan]

I will remind you!

[buffy]

Wowwww...I stand in awe! I have about twenty different iris, but I've never counted the number of plants. I just think of them as "pods" of color. I made a serious error this spring, and failed to staple the color of the iris to the leaves before they quit blooming. Then I transplanted about half of them. I have NO idea what I planted next to each other out there. I'll be thrilled if they bloom next year. I still have some to divide. I'll have to send you some next summer.

Have you ever shopped at the garden center of a Home Depot? I found some good quality plants there, at reasonable prices. Like you, I generally prefer to shop at a local nursery, but I was pleasantly surprised by Home Depot.

[bogie]

I rarely get to Home Depot, and it is about 30 miles from our house, so shopping there is not much of an option.

Sure, Walmart is about 30 miles from the house (in 3 differeent directions no less( but at least it is only 2 miles out of my way when I am coming home from work. The closest HD from work is about 10 miles away - and that is in the opposite direction from home (and near the Nashua/Mass. border - streets way too busy for my liking!).