OK, gang, it's Fess UP Time 2017, No more hiding behind the closet door, time to come clean. You will feel so much better once you do! Please read all of of the rules below, then calculate your status.

Here is the "How many new iris cultivars did you acquire" scale

1 to 30 = Just kid stuff
31 to 50 = A good start
51 to 75 = Slightly off balance
76 to 100 = On the Edge!
101 to 125 = Over the Edge
126 to 150 = Pretty messed up
151 to 175 = You need your head examined
176 to 200 = Bring on the paddy wagon!
200 to 300 = Men in white coats coming with strait jacket.
Over 300 =Living in La La Land

Rules:
You count all of the iris cultivars that you acquired during this calendar year.

Include Irises that you receive from trades or gifts, or for postage count as well as those you buy.

Update your status with each new order sent in.

You don't need to list the names of the irises, although you may, but just the number.

NOIDs received count too.

You do not need to count irises that you are replacing that have died within the last 2 years.

You do not count irises that you already have but have ordered additional rhizomes.

You do not count seedlings that you started from seeds.

If you receive a seedling as a gift from someone that counts for the person receiving it.

You only count new CULTIVARS that you add to your collection, this is not a count of rhizomes.

Whom ever is deemed the person who ordered the highest number of rhizomes (sorry, commercial growers excluded here) will be awarded a noteworthy title, and gift of some sort yet to be determined. The deadline for this award will be Nov 30. Rhizomes received after this time will not count toward this title. Although you can post them on here for posterity sake.

May the best (or craziest) man or woman win! Crossing Fingers!

I will be the first to "Fess Up", but I have to tell you that I am ashamed that I won't be winning any grand prizes with my orders this year.
I am only "Slightly Off Balance" with a total of purchases and trades of 53. I've been a good boy and didn't go wacky this year.

well..... I need my head examined.... but that's no surprise. Due to generous iris friends on this site, and family gifts, I am over the 150 mark. I don't have an exact count but I don't think I need to watch out for the padded (not watching out for the paddy wagon either, LOL) wagon. I had some sent from my 'scarce or impossible to find/get here' (OVER THE MOON ABOUT THESE ) wish list (these from an iris angel , and sent someone..... I will not mention his name but has the initials of Scott, back to Craig's list, back to the phone, back in his vehicle, back to the door of the seller to acquire a cultivar and send it on to me.... ask me if I have no shame , no, but I have great iris friends!!!) and a noid I begged for (can't wait to see this one bloom) as well as some new intros. I did not expect to add nearly as many as I did but am over the moon about receiving them. I am going to concentrate on acquiring a few from my existing wish list and not look at any new irises this spring. yeah, ......right. Just in case I am working on a new iris bed this fall....... as I said, just in case.

Bonnie, it's exciting to find rare varieties and I enjoyed the adventure!

I know there is the "Top 10 most wanted list for next year" thread, but many of those varieties are commercially available. Is there a thread of rare or hard-to-find cultivars that folks want? It could be beneficial to have a list when going to a local club sale, etc.

Thanks for "Fessing UP" Bonnie, it cleanses the sole and allows you to move on to next year's acquisitions.

Scott, sounds like you should start a thread called "Rare ones I need to find" where people could help each other to find them.

Tom, do we have to count the ones received, but that rotted within two weeks of planting?
(problem at my location, not from the senders)

I had a couple of those too, Debra, and two that were goners when I opened the little box.

At 67 I'm also "Slightly Off Balance". This doesn't sound too bad, but as a long time iris gardener of mostly NOID's I only started collecting named irises for real in 2015 and have noticed a most worrisome trend. Every year I have gotten more and more.

The selection here in Sweden is really limited and it wasn't before 2015 I discovered how easy it could be to buy irises from within the EU, otherwise I would have gone "wild" much sooner.

I wont list all purchases, but only a few select of the most anticipated. Some are not very new, like 'Absolute Treasure', but I have been unable to find them until this year, so for this reason have longed for them for awhile. In some cases I even bought other irises as substitutions while I waited... For instance I really wanted 'Patchwork Puzzle', but instead I got 'Wild Angel'. Now this is corrected.

Yeah, I would like to know about the count for rotted immediately too as I lost a fair number.

27 dwarfs, 2 rotted

25 IB/BB, 3 rotted

112 TB, 14 rotted, 8 iffy

3 LA's

So if I count the rotted ones then I Need to Have My Head Examined

Without them I am only Pretty Messed Up

Either is less than the Paddy Wagon amounts I had the last few years. And the count this year was greatly increased by a generous amount of bonus iris sent my way. Really almost doubles what I actually bought.

for starting a Fess Up thread again, Tom!

Well, even though I had one or two which rotted shortly after they arrived, with 111 new ones added this year I am still Over the Edge... as if I really needed to be reminded of that!

I thought I was behaving myself this year. I had promised myself that I would only replace iris that had died.....which I did. But then...There were "special" club sales...$2.00 iris available at our club Dig Day....generous traders....and hard to resist summer sales by my favorite vendors.
Final total came to 48 new varieties. Only "A Good Start" on the craziness scale, but when added to what I already have, I am well past LaLa Land.

At least I am in good company!

Very true!

Does culling reduce our number of newbies?

William, that is one nice list of irises!

Only if you culled the newbies?

I'm estimating 85...(that's my story, and I'm sticking to it! On the Edge...exactly how I've felt this year !)

I'm at A Good Start.

lovemyhouse said:Tom, do we have to count the ones received, but that rotted within two weeks of planting?
(problem at my location, not from the senders)

Yes, count them, but if you replace them next year you don't count them then.

UndertheSun said:Does culling reduce our number of newbies?

William, that is one nice list of irises!

Culling doesn't reduce your craziness levels.

So this is my very first year of "collecting" irises. I already had some in my flower gardens.

It all started at Bluebird Haven, which is about a 20 minute drive from my house. When I went there, it was already past "main bloom" time, but there were quite a few still in bloom. Acres and acres...I could not cover them all. I was taking a long lost relative (cousin) and her husband there, since already having them take us to a nice lunch (private party) at a nearby winery. So I think they enjoyed them, but I was overwhelmed at the numbers and did not make a selection. Later on I went online and discovered the website and then learned how to navigate it. Mary says she has over 4000 varieties, so I was overwhelmed. In the past, when I ordered irises, there were only a few that I liked, and usually limited my purchase of only 2 or 3. Most catalogs of a good selection of plants only offer a handful of irises, not usually more than 10.

So, I took days, going through the Bluebird Haven online catalog, with several emails to Mary as she was out of stock on many, but no way to indicate it on her website. So, I WAS going to limit my selection to 20, but actually ended up with 40!

Then I received a generous gift (20) for postage from a kind member here, as he realized that I did not have enough irises. Then another member was also generous with sending me a gift for postage as well.
Then another box showed up from the first member....in the mean while, I had placed some (very small) orders from Blue J, McClure & Zimmerman, Schreiner's, G.H.Wild, T's Flowers. There were bonus plants from everyone but Schreiner's. I made a list to order from Winterberry, but decided against it, as I had not even planted all that I had.

What happened to me???

Bluebird Haven ~ 40 + 3 + 1 = 44
Blue J ~ 7 + 6 = 13
Schreiner's ~ 5
McClure & Zimmerman ~ 4 + 2
G.H.Wild ~ 3
T's Flowers ~ 3 + 4
Iris Friend #1 ~ 20 + 3 later
Iris Friend #2 ~ 4
Front Yard Nursery ~ 3

And they are all planted!

So that is a total of 108!

Edited to add 2 bonus rhizomes from McClure & Zimmerman,

So it looks like I am "over the edge", for my first year!