My first little iris opened fully this morning. It is SDB Making Eyes, a 1982 creation by Barry Blyth. The clump is in front of a row of hyacinths but the bloom stalk came up among the hyacinth blooms.



Its parents are SDB Frost Tipped and SDB Amazon Princess. I have what appears to be a little bloom stalk forming on both the parent plants.

I have two more little irises that should be opening in a few days but it will be slow posting for a bit.

As always, I am very excited about this iris season. I still don't know if it will be a good one or not. Many of my little SDB's are forming hollow stalks. I think this is due to the extended drought last summer in this area. But as always, I will take whatever comes and be grateful for it.

Bonnie, Making Eyes is so pretty! Nice photos too!

Such a beauty too!

Yay! Happy for your first iris!

How do you like Making Eyes? Mine tends to me small-flowered and the increases are consistently smaller (size, not quantity) than all of my other SDBs. Is that a trait of Making Eyes?

Thank you, Jan! I am so excited to have the bloom season start, even though it will be a slow start, that i feel like jumping up and down like this

Making Eyes is hardy in this zone. I dug it quite a bit last year and it is making nice increases. I have piled all manner of garden tools around it to discourage the stray cats from digging it up. One little iris had been completely turned over with the leaves in the ground and the roots to the sky. Cats do not have a clue when it come to gardening.

Scott, I do have others with much smaller blooms so I would say ME is not a small bloom iris. I will compare it to others as the season progresses a bit. Since it is classed Very Early I may measure the bloom to compare with the later blooming ones.

That is such a little beauty!

janwax said:Bonnie, Making Eyes is so pretty! Nice photos too!

Lucky you! Some day the iris will get started here.....(foot tap tap tap).

Leslie ~ Spring is "around the corner"! It will get here soon.

Thanks Rob and Evelyn. You would think i had won the lottery as happy as that little bloom makes me. I think it is a beauty too especially since it is an older one.

I know the feeling Leslie. All the spring bulbs have bloomed, the fruit trees are through blooming and the early shrubs have leafed out and shed their petals. The irises are late for some reason this year.

Tomorrow supposed to have severe thunderstorms. Maybe it is good more are not in bloom.

Thanks Bonnie. I'm about 6 weeks from bloom, so I'll plan to throw down some fertilizer on all my littles tomorrow. Maybe that will help my Making Eyes to grow to a better size.

So beautiful Bonnie. I love that thin light border against the purple.

Last year, my first iris to bloom was on May 15th. So in about 2 weeks I should fertilize? I didn't want to fertilize before we got snow. It didn't make sense to me.

The show has begun

Scott, I have a tiny bloom stalk on Whydidi.

Elsa, I like the definition of the thin line. Its a bit creamy and not as yellowy as the standards.

Evelyn, i have fertilized in late February and then had snow but the seasons change swiftly here. I like to fertilize about six weeks before I expect them to bloom.

Robin.... I hope its a good one.

Very nice, Bonnie. I'm thinking it will take a couple of months until something with a beard blooms here, so it is a nice vitamin injection to see some flowers from your garden while waiting.

Thank you, William.

grannysgarden said:Scott, I have a tiny bloom stalk on Whydidi.

Yes!!! I was thinking about Whydidi yesterday and hoping it would bloom for you this year!! After all the adventure and fun conversation around this one variety, I hope it lives up to expectations. Keep us posted, please!!

William said:Very nice, Bonnie. I'm thinking it will take a couple of months until something with a beard blooms here, so it is a nice vitamin injection to see some flowers from your garden while waiting.

and Making Eyes is d...arn cute!