I'm down to my last iris bloom of the spring, but it's a good one: Dance Card, a border bearded iris introduced by Keith Keppel in 2010. It's a vigorous little iris and the flowers have a substance that you wouldn't expect given their delicate colors.



Didn't really have time to post many pictures this spring, but hopefully I can use this thread to eventually show some of my favorites from this year.

I love BBs. That has beautiful color but a little too ruffles for my taste. Probably could use the ruffles to jazz up my flowers,however.

It appears to be pretty fertile. I only made three crosses with it, but they all took.

Very nice Kent, Looking forward to your bloom pics from this year. You take such nice pictues. You will have to share some of your expertice in crossing iris. I tried several crosses, and only one took, and that stem got brocken off by a high wind. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. The first year I tried making crosses, I got 3 pods, and then none of them germinated. Maybe that would be a new tread to start this winter. Anyway, keep the pics coming.

Thanks Tom, but I really don't have any expertise when it comes to crossing iris as my success rate is typically around 30%. Here's an example:

Jordan's Joy - made 10 crosses with this iris in the past two years for zero pods


I actually asked Keith Keppel about that once and he just shrugged and said 'probably the weather'. There might be something to that as I get around 60% success with late season crosses as opposed to 10% on early season crosses. Still a pretty iris, though.

Paul wrote a nice description of how he gets seed to germinate, either here or at Cubits, and I use a generally similar technique. Basically, it involved soaking the seed to remove germination inhibitors, a few months of cold moist stratification, and planting in pots with potting soil that drains very rapidly.

Sunset Plaza - another new favorite that is fertile


Salome's Butterfly - used it as a substitute for Dinner Talk which didn't bloom this year


Silk Road - a bit subtly colored, but a really impressive iris


Love Match - might be heresy to say it, but I like this iris far better than Queen's Circle. It has more ruffles, heavier substance, and cleaner colors. I really like the white beards, too.


More later...

I really like Love Match I hadn't seen it before. I have silk road, and I wasn't all that impressed with it last year, but this year the blooms are better shaped, and I'm liking it more. It's still blooming for me, long after most of the others are done. It seems to be an agressive grower too, guess I'll keep it around.

I have Queen's Circle - it was a gift. it bloomed for me this year and was really pretty. I do have to transplant it because it is behind some taller iris. Pretty iris though, but I have to admit, your Love Match is beautiful.

Queen's Circle

Jan -- that looks abnormally short for Queen's Circle. If it's a new plant for you, you might want to wait a year for it to reach full maturity/size.

I think I will do that. It was received in October last year. And with the weird weather, who knows. I was surprised it was so short, because I tried to plant things so that the tall ones were against the house. I was actually surprised it bloomed, because there isn't much to it yet. Thanks for the suggestion to wait. ~Jan

Beauty Becomes Her - yellow doesn't generally do much for me, but this is a great iris.


Blue Trill - been looking for the perfect light blue TB for years, it's as close as I've seen


Gates Of Rome - has a richness of color that is hard to capture in a picture


Dawn To Dusk - you wouldn't think a Schreiner's iris would get overlooked, but this iris deserves more fanfare than it's gotten


Saturn - had this iris on my wish list for years, but it never quite made the cut. Glad I finally bought it last year because it's a lot prettier than I even guessed


Days Gone By - it's like it is sculpted out of frosting


Phantom Ship - perhaps my favorite neglecta (Fabulous One is the other contender) and I finally got some successful crosses with it

I need a bib -- drooling.....................

Lovely pictures all....I love Beauty Becomes Her

I like Beauty Becomes Her, and Dawn to Dusk. Guess I better start on Next Year's list. Then there's Phantom Ship Oh my. Some nice pictures.

The dark purple 'Foreign Storm' is still holding on. Some siberian bloom'

I thought my Irises were done for the year -- and I've got two blooming stalks of *Amain*, and a bloom stalk of *Clothed in Glory* coming. Both of these Irises have already bloomed this year, and are not re-bloomers. Man -- this has been a wierd year!!!

Cool!

That is cool, Mary Ann! For what it is worth, Amain is a known rebloomer. It was hybridized by Mr. Rebloom himself, Lloyd Zurbrigg. But, the AIS checklist says it reblooms in October so yours is amazingly early. In my garden, it usually sends up a stalk or two in November, just in time for winter

Thanks Kent. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that Amain might be a rebloomer -- although it never has for me. But my rebloomers always bloom in the Fall -- this is just way abnormal. I'm thinking it has more to do with the rapid advent of early Spring and warm/hot weather -- maybe all the Spring stalks just didn't have time to come up and bloom -- ???

Anyway -- I'm enjoying them regardless. And I'm glad that you confirmed my suspicions about Amain.

Oh, beautiful pictures! ~Jan