We were at the Navy boot camp in Great Lakes for 4 years. My husband retired from the Navy there. The Navy is how we ended up in Utah to begin with. He was stationed at the University of Utah as a teacher in the ROTC department. We bought a house at the time, and decided to keep it so that we'd have a place to move to when he retired. We never planned on staying here, but it took 11 years for us to decide to move. This will be our 18th move, so I think we were just sick and tired of moving! Now we can't wait to move!

You must be an expert in packing etc. Moving a garden is more difficult.

Hey, Natalie, I have some Immortality you can get when you pick me up on the way to Rita's...just sayin'

Orange Harvest reblooms for me. Have a NOID yellow with sparse rebloom.

Debra!!!!!

I'll have to check on Orange Harvest, and see how it does in a little colder area. My neighbor has an orange NOID iris, and it's stunning. The one she has doesn't rebloom, but I keep telling her that I'm stealing it on my way out of town. She's raiding my yard anyway as soon as I pull out of the driveway, so we'll be even!

Lucy, I'm not an expert at packing at all. The good thing about most of those previous moves was that the Navy moved us. We just had to sit back and watch someone else do all the work. Packing stinks!

I had Orange Harvest, and it did rebloom some years if the fall was a bit late, I'm in zone 5b. Harvest of memories is a yellow rebloomer that will rebloom here some years too. Immortality will ususally rebloom every year here. Jennifer Rebecca tries each year, but usutally gets frozen out.

Little late to the party here, but I did plant a whole lot of re-bloomers in my daughter's garden in Salt Lake about 5 years ago. (we lived there too, until 2002 when we migrated to FL)

In her garden, with the same treatment for all the plants (they both work, so not much gardening happens unless I am there visiting) we've only had Rosalie Figge rebloom for us. It's a gorgeous dark purple. The rest, nada!

If I remember correctly, we had Orange Harvest, Victoria Falls, Tennyson Ridge and Cantina as well as Rosalie Figge. There was one summer that they got some extra TLC in July when I was house-sitting for them for 3 weeks. Still no reblooms from those darned iris. Here are her Orange Harvest, Victoria Falls and Tennyson Ridge from last May.

OHHHHh, I've been looking for some orange Iris and this one is beautiful!!!

Victoria Falls was such a beautiful iris ......with a tall weak stem at least here in Utah

Funny I recall thinking those Vic Falls had sort of stubby short stems when I took that pic. They are in Salt Lake City.

I've noticed that the iris in their back yard (south side of the house) do have longer stems than the ones out front. It's a two-story house so the front yard near the house is in the shade for a couple of weeks longer than the back yard. Wonder if it's something to do with warming up later in the spring, so they start growing later, but jump into bloom faster once the sun gets to them, so they don't have as much time to grow long stems? We may never know, they're putting that house up for sale this summer.

Elaine, those are all gorgeous!! I'm going to try Orange Harvest for sure. I've been wanting an orange for a long time, and that one is gorgeous! Since I'm moving to Idaho, maybe it will rebloom, since it's warmer there. I love Victoria Falls too. Paul, did it always have a weak stem? I'm wondering if it was because it was cold here? I've had iris for many years, but I'm still a novice, so I'm not sure about these things. It really is stunning, so maybe I can try that one too. I'm pretty sure that I have Tennyson Ridge, but I'm not sure which clump it is, so it will stay behind. I do love it though. I've never had an iris rebloom, and I really want to concentrate on that.

I've often heard 'Victoria Falls' referred to as 'Victoria Falls Down'. Its reputation for weak stems is widespread and well deserved.

yes

Well, it's certainly beautiful, but I think I'll just pass it up. Something else is bound to be out there that is just as pretty, and doesn't fall down.

Victoria Falls is too nice an iris for me to pass up. I know, it "lays down on the job", but in our windy conditions, it' the rare iris that dosen't.Pretty much have to stake anything over 30", so I'm used to it! But it does raise an interesting question...How did "VF" win the DM with such an obvious fault? Is the Dykes for beauty only? Seems Substance ,form ,hardiness, vigor,etc. are supposed to all count, aren't they?....Arlyn

I hope Lucy comments on this. Her years of experience are of value to our discussions. I think that there have been times when a very 'pretty face' wins the approval of those who vote and faults aren't immediately evident. An iris is seen by the right people in the right places,wins an award, and then as it is more widely distributed the faults become evident. I think that 'Mystique', a very pretty iris which won the Dykes, turned out to be a slow difficult grower in some areas while others had great success with it. 'Dream Lover', introduced in the 70's by Esther Tams of Utah, was in prime bloom when viewed by the judges who saw it at the convention, gained enthusiasm, and went on to win the Dykes. Melba Hamblen, another Utah hybridizer, introduced many wonderful awarding winning iris, had runner-ups, but never won the Dykes. It is probably impossible to design a perfect system.

Wide distribution helps with award winners. More people see the plant= more votes. Some judges are sorry afterwards that a certain iris won the top award. In later years irises which have not won top awards are enjoyed by more people. 'Word of mouth' awards.

However plants must have good features to win.

It is not a perfect system......