Awww...they're cute, Tom!

tom.

tveguy3 said:

• Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris (Iris 'Smell the Roses')
• Uploaded by tveguy3

• Miniature Dwarf Bearded Iris (Iris 'Pussytoes')
• Uploaded by tveguy3

• Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris (Iris 'Gingerbread Man')
• Uploaded by crowrita1

• Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris (Iris 'Narnia')
• Uploaded by crowrita1

A few little ones that are good growers here.

Tom ~ they are just beautiful!

Very nice, Tom. Pussytoes is very sweet, but I would buy it just for the name

I looked at all those beautiful irises at Bluebird Haven and decided that I would wait until next year to buy any more irises. I have enough coming this year that I am already having to expand the beds past where I was originally going to put them By next year I should have a better idea what I might want to do. I have bookmarked that site Evelyn so I can find them again. So many lovely blooms.

At some point, I plan to do a lofty order from Bluebird. There are a LOT of historics I would love to have.

queenanne42 said:I looked at all those beautiful irises at Bluebird Haven and decided that I would wait until next year to buy any more irises. I have enough coming this year that I am already having to expand the beds past where I was originally going to put them By next year I should have a better idea what I might want to do. I have bookmarked that site Evelyn so I can find them again. So many lovely blooms.

Anne ~ Oh, good! Mary has wonderful irises! You really get your money's worth on them. She has gotten many new varieties for this year, and some for the future, that she has NFS instead of a price. It means that she will have enough to sell in a year or two.

yesterday I published photos of my historical iris Study In Black.



Here are some more pictures







I crossed it last year with a new variety , but only one seedling grew. I wonder what will happen ))

serjio, love all of your pics. what did you cross it with?

hippie said:serjio, love all of your pics. what did you cross it with?

Thank! with Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Twilight Rhapsody')

this variety had an excess of pollen and I did not know where to apply it)

it's a very beautiful and stately looking iris, serjio.

Hey Monty,

Good thread! It looks like over half that I bought last year are historics so I'll just list some of the golden oldies for now, some I got to help me identify a few of my noids and some are new to me.

One nice sky blue from '52 is Eleanor's Pride.



From '65 is Crinkled Gem



Another one I've had before is Blue Luster from '73.



And Mystique, a Dykes Winner from '72.

:

Loop the Loop from '75.



Full tide from '72, I think I have a large clump that I hope to compare it to.



Stitch Witch from '75 which I lost.



Most of the rest of these are new to me. Here's a real oldie, Frank Adams from '37.



Tangerine Sky from '76.



Sostenique from '75, an AU Dykes winner.



Sultan's Palace from '77.



Spartan from '72.



Silent Majesty from '76.



Latin Lover from '69.



Instigator from '75.



Edenite from '58, a rare black back then.



Christabel '34.



Argus Pheasant '47.



Ola Kala '42, another Dykes Winner.



Melody '54.



And an oldie but goodie, Mme. Chereau 1844.



And some others that I hope to list later. FYI there was a note on the photos of Ola Kala and Melody by Kent that they were found growing in a cemetery. My kind of iris!

Great list, Ivan! I have only Full Tide, but there are a lot on your list I would joy to have someday on my iris farm. Frank Adams especially.

Good ouck with your new finds!

I was going to ask you what career you were going to study for in college, but looks like you already know what you want. I wish I had started sooner because it's amazing how popular these plants have become. When I started looking for irises last year in June, over half of the nurseries were sold out. And even in January when they started selling again, some varieties were sold out in days. So there's a super demand if you just apply yourself and get them growing. I'd suggest too, like the others said that you get you a good labeling system, map them out and keep good records on them. Some use expensive software but I just use windows notebook and list the ones I have and make columns for the info I want to add to them. Not as good as Excel or Word but satisfactory for the short term. You may already be good with computers but you probably can learn a lot more to help your business if you go on to college and take some business and computer courses.

I have 2 sons and often wish they had taken an interest in agriculture but both of them are into computer programming at UNT right now and have other aspirations.

By the way, when I was looking back at the historics I bought last year for your thread, I found out that I had already picked up one that was the Mme. Chereau look-a-like that I used to have when I was a kid. It's nice when you find you already have something you're looking for. That's another reason to keep records so you can avoid duplications. Anyway, here it is,
Blue Shimmer-1947.


Another old one I picked up was Mary Geddes-1930.


This one from 1955 is Butterscotch Kiss a nice blend.


These were the oldest but then I also got some of the species iris, germanica, florentine, pallida, and the silver variegated pallida.


I've got the gold variegated one on order but not sure how either will last in Tx. Our summers are brutal here and actually after studying them, I should be growing Arilbreds although can't say I've ever seen one. I accidentally ordered and planted one last year called Jallab, so I guess he will be happy here. Not a TB or a historic but not bad looking.



They like to go dormant in the hot summer unlike the TB's which I'll have to irrigate so I'll probably start looking to plant a few of them as well. Take care.

Thank you for the insight, Ivan, and for your list of beauties!

I look to get into horticulture so I can learn a lot of things about plants. I eventually want to run my own iris garden where future iris virus bitten and not as much so people can purchase from my gardens and perhaps sprawl over my intros.

I've wanted to hybridize irises for a long, long time, but I do not know why it took me so long to even start to try crossing irises with each other. I am going to attempt a lot more crosses this year and get a better taste at what could end up being my fulles passion.

And you all are helping spark that passion.

Sounds like you have some good goals. Wish you much success, buddy. I also went into Horticulture and loved every minute of it, I'm sure you will too.
My problem is they told me I needed to specialize in one field and I never could do it. I liked all kinds of plants. I started out working in a couple of nurseries before working for myself. Then I started landscaping, tree trimming and pest control, until I made enough to buy me a commercial greenhouse. I always liked growing tomatoes so I raised hydroponic tomatoes for awhile, then got into tropical plants, and finally orchids, which has made me the best income. But I'm ready to phase out the orchids and get into irises if I can get them growing the way they ought to. I'm used to the controlled environment of the greenhouse and the weather here gets pretty erratic and the insects are terrible. But so far so good. Hopefully I can get an iris farm going too since the demand is just going to get bigger. Especially when people start seeing them all on the internet and have to have them.

I'm going to strictly sell off the internet though. People tend to trash your gardens and help themselves to plants when you're not looking so I don't really want to deal with that. Plus it's hard to get away unless there's someone to watch the homefront while you're gone. The cats, dogs, chickens, and other varmints passing thru are bad enough. We even have feral hogs and coyotes that come into the place sometimes. I lost another bloom stalk last week mysteriously so now the chickens are going to stay cooped up until bloom season is over. Then I can let them out to clean up all the bugs and grasshoppers the rest of the year.` I was tempted to put tomato cages around my new bloom stalks but would have to anchor them down to keep the wind from knocking them over. I guess I could make some anchors out of rebar and drive in a couple in to hold the cages in place. There's several I sure would like to see and some were rather expensive so I guess it's off to get some rebar tomorrow. LOL Til' later.

Ivan - Horticulture is something that appeals to me very much. Should I take a class, I'd probably very much enjoy it, especially since I love plants a bunch.

Though, I'm not a huge fan of orchids. Even though I've never had one, they do not seem to appeal to me too much. I may try and grow one some day.
I want to work in a nursery to get a grip at being a person who could possibly even run one, so that if I do go big and start an iris farm/vendor, I can have a better chance with experience to do so.
Hey, if we both become iris vendors, want to partner?

I have ravaging chickens. Yes, I love them, but I don't love when they wreck up my irises. And then the deer constantly would eat my iris leaves through the winter. I am so glad they don't eat the entire plant though - I'm not the only person on the iris forums who has an issue with critters. Still love my chickens though. What kind(s) do you have?

Good luck with fixing your stalks and such! And thank you for the information.

Monty ~ It would be better to finish your education before starting your employment. This window of opportunity is ideal at your age to do that. You have the rest of your life to work, and a college education gives you more opportunities and a better pay scale upon entering the work force. Your knowledge of horticulture, botany and genetics can most likely increase your chances for success in the future, but of course, it is up to you.

You would have opportunities that you might not have otherwise, and also, learning genetics, of which more information is coming out all the time, would be very helpful if you do decide to hybridize irises. Please take this information upon consideration.

I kinda agree with Evelyn that it's better to get your college work done first. I started out studying Botany and got burnt out because it was more science and not enough about growing plants so I quit for awhile and after I started working I couldn't have possibly afforded to go back to school except that I had a good samaritan boss that offered to pay for me to finish my degree with no strings attached. Will always appreciate what he did because I couldn't have done it on my own. That's when I changed it to Hort. and started taking classes I enjoyed, all the way up to Aseptic
Tissue Culture Technique which I've never got to use.

But after reading Tom's post about the viruses affecting irises, I read that the only way to save an infected plant is through tissue culture of the apical meristem or central growing point of the plant. Orchids are cloned that way to multiply them virus-free, but mainly because they are so slow growing. Possibly it will become popular with irises too, if only to produce clean, virus-free stock and to save infected seedlings that might otherwise have to be trashed. So you might want to learn that too along the way.

For me, Genetics was only in the Botany degree and it was interesting, but tough. Another possibility might be taking some of Don Spoon's training classes in Iris genetics at Winterberry's Nursery. I understand he trains a lot of young people in hybridizing irises. And seems like he's in VA, too. I would love to attend some if I was there.

About my chickens, I have about three, 3 yr old Silkies, a Cochin Bantam and one Blue English Game Hen I call Boo Boo. She's the smallest but is the only one that talks to me. These don't even lay anymore so last year I picked up some black sex link chicks(New Hampshire x Rhode Island Red) which are superproductive but superdestructive, too and don't really make as good pets as the bantams. But now we have to give eggs away or boil them for dog and cat food.

I finally decided to use 36" welding rods to stake my blooms. I just made a loop around one end that can go around the stalk and bend a small hook on the end to keep it in place. It's similar to the plant stakes you see for sale but only costs me about 20 cents a piece. Plus I have an aluminum tag maker that embosses aluminum tape and punches a hole too. So I think the welding rods will be the best way to hold my tags, and they will be higher so I can see them better. I started out wiring my tags to bamboo stakes but already see the wire rusting and some of the stakes get broken or just pop out of the ground(probably moles), but the welding rods don't rust and I can stick them almost a foot deep. Anyway, it beats the metal tags that cost nearly $1 apiece which you can't read without bending over. And bending is something I can't do much of anymore.